The Reserve Bank of India vide its notification dated 12th November 2021 has published the integrated ombudsman scheme, 2021 which provides cost-free redress of customer complaints involving deficiency in services rendered by entities regulated by the RBI.
The Scheme integrates the existing three Ombudsman schemes of RBI namely, The banking ombudsman scheme 2006, the ombudsman scheme for non-banking financial companies 2018 and the ombudsman scheme for digital transactions, 2019. In addition to integrating the three existing schemes, the Scheme also includes under its ambit Non-Scheduled Primary Co-operative Banks with a deposit size of ₹50 crore and above. The Scheme adopts ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ approach by making the RBI Ombudsman mechanism jurisdiction neutral.
Some of the salient features of the Scheme are:
- It will no longer be necessary for a complainant to identify under which scheme he/she should file complaint with the Ombudsman.
- The Scheme defines ‘deficiency in service’ as the ground for filing a complaint, with a specified list of exclusions. Therefore, the complaints would no longer be rejected simply on account of “not covered under the grounds listed in the scheme”.
- The Scheme has done away with the jurisdiction of each ombudsman office.
- A Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre has been set up at RBI, Chandigarh for receipt and initial processing of physical and email complaints in any language.
- The responsibility of representing the Regulated Entity and furnishing information in respect of complaints filed by customers against the Regulated Entity would be that of the Principal Nodal Officer in the rank of a General Manager in a Public Sector Bank or equivalent.
- The Regulated Entity will not have the right to appeal in cases where an Award is issued by the ombudsman against it for not furnishing satisfactory and timely information/documents.
