The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the annual report of the Ombudsman Scheme 2022-23. According to the report, the total number of complaints received at the Ombudsman Office of the Reserve Bank of India (ORBIOs) and the Centralized Receipt and Processing Centre (CRPC) in 2022-23 was 7,03,544.
This report is the first stand-alone report under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021.
The scheme was rolled out in November 2021. Under this scheme, the three erstwhile Ombudsman Schemes viz., Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006, Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (OSNBFC), 2018, and Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (OSDT), 2019, were integrated.
The report states that the increase in the number of complaints is due to the intensified public awareness initiatives and the simplified process for lodging of complaints under the RB-IOS 2021. The total number of complaints received by the ORBIOs declined from 3,04,496 complaints in 2021-22 to 2,34,690 complaints in 2022-23. This decline is due to the structural changes made in the Ombudsman framework under RB-IOS 2021, it said.
Under the RB-IOS 2021, credit information companies (CICs) were also brought under the scope of the scheme from 1 September 2022.
“It is observed that the States/UTs of Chandigarh, NCT of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat were the top five contributors to Ombudsman complaints, while the States of Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh were the lowest contributors during the year,” the report said.