Customer first

Banks must focus on customer service

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In his remarks on Monday at the annual conference of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ombudsmen, Governor Sanjay Malhotra rightly highlighted the need for regulated entities, such as banks and non-banking financial companies, to improve customer service.

The number of complaints under the RBI's Integrated Ombudsman Scheme increased at a compound annual rate of about 50 per cent over the past two years ended 2023-24, while the number of complaints processed by the RBI ombudsmen increased by about 25 per cent, leaving a significant backlog.

Further, as Mr Malhotra highlighted, in 2023-24, 95 scheduled commercial banks received over 10 million complaints from their customers.

In this context, he suggested that senior bank officials dedicate time every week to address issues.

He also suggested improving systems to reduce grievances.

However, setting better grievance-redress mechanisms is also important.

Basic banking service is a necessity in today's day and age.