Reserve Bank of India
RBI/2011-12/426
DBOD.No. Leg.BC.83/ 09.07.005/2011-12
March 5, 2012
All Scheduled Commercial Banks
(excluding RRBs)
Dear Sir
Grievance Redressal Mechanism in Banks –
Display of Names of Nodal Officers
Please refer to our Circular DBOD.No.Leg.BC.24 /09.07.005/2009-10 dated July 21, 2009 wherein banks were, inter alia, advised to display the names and other details of the officials at their Head Office / Zonal Offices / Regional Offices including the names of the Nodal Officers / Principal Nodal Officers appointed under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006 on their web-sites who can be contacted for redressal of complaints. Banks were also advised to display the names, addresses, telephone numbers and fax numbers of their CMD / CEO, Line Functioning Heads for operations such as, Credit Cards, Loans and Advances, Retail Banking, Personal Banking, Rural / Agricultural Banking, SME Banking, etc on their web-sites to enable their customers to approach them, if necessary.
2. With a view to making the Grievance Redressal Mechanism more effective, in addition to the instructions contained in the above mentioned circular, banks are further advised as under:
- Ensure that the Principal Nodal Officer appointed under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme is of a sufficiently senior level, not below the rank of a General Manager.
- Contact details including name, complete address, telephone / fax number, email address, etc., of the Principal Nodal Officer needs to be prominently displayed in the portal of the bank preferably on the first page of the web-site so that the aggrieved customer can approach the bank with a sense of satisfaction that she / he has been attended at a senior level.
- Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) should be made simpler even if it is linked to call centre of customer care unit without customers facing hassles of proving identity, account details, etc.
- Adequate and wider publicity are also required to be given by the respective financial services provider.
3. The name and address of the Principal Nodal Officer may also be forwarded to the Chief General Manager, Customer Service Department, Reserve Bank of India, Central Office, 1st Floor, Amar Building, Sir P.M.Road, Mumbai-400 001 (email).
Yours faithfully,
(Deepak Singhal)
Chief General Manager-in-Charge
It is anybody’s wild guess as to how far such steps as being taken by the RBI are going to meet the dire needs of the hour, anywhere close thereto, with any real success.
Anyone who has ever cared to have a even a glimpse of what are stored in the RBI ‘s official website would have found volumes of material of public utility made available/given publicity . Those include among others the most crucial topic of painful concern to the public at large; that is, the ‘code of ethics’, its constituents/ the personnel- in -charge (including, top management – directors at the helm, standing in a fiduciary capacity) are supposed to scrupulously follow. Underlying it, stunningly predominant, are the twin ideologies of – ‘accountability’ and ’transparency’’; the lately projected /widely trumpeted pet subjects for long and short discussions, and ongoing debates, in leading / influential circles.
Be that as it may, at the end of the day, as is always so, it is the want of requisite monitoring and close follow-on actions on the part of the regulatory authority, that are responsible for all those stuff remaining for long /continue to so remain simply on ‘paper’. Frankly speaking, from the viewpoint of most of the banks, especially the PSBs, those are not regarded to call for any serious attention, much less compliance, – not to fear about, anymore than to a mere ‘paper tiger’;
Where or how can anyone expect in the least, or hope even remotely, for satisfactory resolution of anyone or more of the routine hassles commonly faced with by the hapless community serviced by banks ; being destined to be at the receiving end .
There is no gainsaying that, the whole system / the mental make-up of those expected to adhere or yield to , if not forced discipline, a reasonable measure/sense of self-discipline, is, by and large, increasingly facing the danger of an alarming decay !
This article is beneficial. Recently i visited Bank of Baroda, Pune Camp where i have my account. I wanted to inform bank about the change of my residential address and the same to be incorporated in my pass book as proof of address.
I gave a written application for the same with proof of adddress. I approached a staff of Bank of Baroda who is responsible for the particular job. The staff behaved to me very badly and shouted to me. They said our system is not working, it takes time to open, do not wait you go. i wanted the change to be made urgently. Since the staff refused to attend my application, i approached the Branch Manager and asked to instruct the staff to attend the job. The manager also behaved in the same way and said she is not concerned to the job again approach the staff. After this incident, i left from there. I visited Bank of Baroda website to lodge a complaint. Could not get much information, but got email id of a higher authority and sent an email. But not received any reply.
Regards
S.Karimbil