The service sector is fast growing in the country, especially with the growth of banking, which underwent a major revolution with the advent of ATMs and online services. On the flip side, complaints from customers regarding deficiencies in services being provided by the banks are also rising. An RTI query revealed that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received a whopping 76,061 complaints last fiscal ending March 31.

The reply to a query by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar informed that offices of 15 ombudsmen appointed by the apex banks received these complaints within a year. Chief information officer with RBI DG Kale provided a big list of banks that included nationalized, cooperative and private ones, against which the complaints were lodged at ombudsmen offices mostly located in the state capitals.

The Banking Ombudsmen Scheme that covers all these was introduced under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, by the apex bank and came into effect from 1995. It offers an inexpensive forum to customers for redressing their grievances against deficiencies in banking services, the veteran RTI activist informed.

The list of banks having complaints is expectedly led by the banking behemoth - State Bank of India - with over 21,000 cases against it. It was distantly followed by two leading private banks - ICICI with 5,209 and HDFC with 5,015 complaints. A couple of city-based cooperative banks - Nagpur Nagrik Sahakari with nine complaints and Shikshak Sahakari with two - also featured in the list. Additionally, international banks like Standard Chartered (3,717), Abu Dhabi Commercial (1), Barclays (104), Deutshe (Asia) (67), HSBC (308), Oman International (3), and Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi (1) also found their names in the list.

Kolarkar added that citizens could lodge complaints in various cases of deficiencies in services. It included default or delay in cheque and draft collection/issuance, violating RBI's directives, levying of charges without prior notice, refusal to open savings accounts, non-disbursement or delay in pension, closure of accounts without notice, and delays in sanctioning/disbursement of the loans. He said citizens could lodged complaints with the ombudsmen but only after raising the issue in writing with the bank concerned. It could be done by either writing to the ombudsman office or by visiting the RBI website, he added.

Some leading banks against which complaints were lodged:

State Bank of India - 21,018

ICICI Bank - 5,209

HDFC Bank - 5,015

Orissa Gramya Bank - 4,109

Standard Chartered Bank - 3,717

Punjab National Bank - 3,560

Axis Bank - 3,028

Bank of Baroda - 2,295

Canara Bank - 1,984

Union Bank of India - 1,957

Bank of India - 1,933

Central Bank of India - 1,631

Indian Overseas bank - 1,361