Banking Ombudsmen Scheme—A Review

The word 'Ombudsmen' in general means a 'grievance man', a public official who is appointed to investigate complaints against the administration. Any person whose grievance against a bank is not resolved to his satisfaction by that bank within a period of two months can approach the Banking Ombudsman if his complaint pertains to any of the matters specified in the Scheme. The main objective of Banking Ombudsman scheme is to receive unresolved complaints about the provision of banking services and to facilitate the satisfaction, settlement or withdrawal of such complaints. This paper examines the particulars of Ombudsmen schemes introduced by RBI in 1995 and which was revised during the year 2002 and their performance since their inception.