The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up the banking ombudsman scheme to take up and resolve customers’ complaints regarding banking services. At present, there are 21 banking ombudsman centers in India, which take up banking complaints and resolve them free of cost.
According to the annual report released by RBI recently, the number of complaints with the banking ombudsman has increased at an average annual rate of about 25% in the last three years. In the previous year, the 21 banking ombudsman offices received 1,63,590 complaints. In this blog, we will discuss some cases where banks were pulled up for cheating customers.
Once the holder of two credit cards had received a demand notice from the bank to pay Rs 1.24 crores and Rs 1.58 crores, even though he had settled the outstanding dues of Rs 35,000, thirteen years earlier. After he filed a complaint with the banking ombudsman, the bank admitted that the credit card accounts were accidentally sold to an ARC (Asset Reconstruction Company). The banking ombudsman directed the bank to settle the issue by marking the outstanding dues as nil.
Once a person had received a call from a fraudster who claimed to be calling from a bank. He was told that his debit card was blocked and to unblock it, he was asked to provide his card details. As soon as he provided his card details, Rs 53,900 was debited from his bank account. He immediately reported the fraud to the bank and asked them to block his card.
But, even after reporting the fraud to the bank, Rs 6,35,000 was debited from his bank account. As the complainant had reported the fraud to the bank immediately, it was the responsibility of the bank to take the necessary action. As the bank failed to take necessary action, the banking ombudsman directed the bank to pay Rs 6,35,000 to the complainant.
See Also: What to do in case of Online Banking Fraud?
By mistake, once a bank had transferred Rs 11,34,994 instead of Rs 1,13,882 in an RTGS transaction. The bank said it was the complainant’s mistake as he had filled the wrong amount in the RTGS form, even though the correct amount was shown in the accompanying cheques and the transaction was passed through, as per the amount mentioned in the RTGS form.
But, the banking ombudsman asked the bank to pay the difference along with interest at the savings bank rate to the complainant, as the deficiency was on the part of the bank. The banking ombudsman said that the bank had not taken proper care by following the maker-checker concept while executing the RTGS transaction.
A bank had surrendered a life insurance policy pledged against education loan, for only Rs 74,000 even though the policy was close to maturity and the sum assured was Rs 2 Lakhs. The complainant's son had availed an education loan of Rs 3 Lakhs from the bank out of which Rs 1 Lakh had to be repaid. The bank did not bother informing the complainant, before surrendering the life insurance policy. The banking ombudsman asked the bank to credit the complainant's loan account with Rs 1.3 Lakh, as the bank did not provide any evidence showing intimation of the complainant, before surrendering the policy.
See Also: Methods Fraudsters Use To Steal Money From Bank Accounts
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