One nation one ombudsman: RBI to integrate consumer grievance redressal scheme

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Mumbai: The Reserve Bank on February 5 announced it will be integrating consumer grievances redressal under a single ombudsman as against three schemes working at present.

There are dedicated ombudsman schemes devoted to consumer grievance redressal in banking, non-bank finance companies and digital transactions, respectively, at present.

“To make the alternate dispute redress mechanism simpler and more responsive to the customers of regulated entities, it has been decided to implement, inter alia, integration of the three Ombudsman schemes and adoption of the ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ approach for grievance redressal,” Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

The move is intended to make the process of redress of grievances easier by enabling the customers of the banks, NBFCs and non-bank issuers of prepaid payment instruments to register their complaints under the integrated scheme, with one centralised reference point, he said.

The RBI is targeting to roll out the e-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme in June 2021, he said.

Das said financial consumer protection has gained significant policy priority across jurisdictions and the RBI has been taking a slew of initiatives on the same.

“In line with the global initiatives on consumer protection, RBI has taken various initiatives to strengthen Grievance Redress Mechanism of regulated entities,” he said.

The RBI had operationalised complaint management system (CMS) portal as one stop solution for alternate dispute resolution of customer complaints not resolved satisfactorily by the regulated entities.