9 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), while releasing a framework for strengthening grievance redress mechanism, has warned supervisory action against banks that fail to improve their redress mechanism in a time-bound manner. Last month Moneylife had written about how the RBI is winding up its customer services department and also BCSBI (Banking Codes and Standards Board of India). The RBI now appears to be getting serious about better grievance redressal system.
In a notification issued this week, the RBI said “Effective grievance redress should be an integral part of the business strategy of the banks. It is, however, evident from the increasing number of complaints received in the offices of banking ombudsman (OBOs), that greater attention by banks to this area is warranted. More focused attention to customer service and grievance redress will ensure satisfactory customer outcomes and greater customer confidence.”