The Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Saturday urged private and foreign banks to put in extra efforts to improve their customer services and redress their complaints.
The proportion of complaints lodged with the banking ombudsman against such banks stood as high as 35 per cent, Mr Mukherjee said here after inaugurating 100 new branches of Federal Bank across the country.
banking ombudsman scheme
He, however, expressed satisfaction over the 11 per cent fall in the total number of customer complaints received under the banking ombudsman scheme during 2010-11.
The total number of complaints received under the banking ombudsman scheme during 2010-11 stood at 71,274, lower than 79,266 received in the previous fiscal. According to the latest annual report of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, as many as 6,895 complaints were against ICICI Bank, 5,590 against HDFC Bank, 2,144 complaints against Standard Chartered Bank, 1,865 against HSBC, 629 against Barclays Bank and 967 against Citibank.
On the issue of subsidy transfer, Mr Mukherjee said that the Government is in the process of implementing e-payment system for direct credit of dues from the Union Government to the beneficiaries of various subsidies. Banks have to gear themselves for this path breaking reforms, he said.
Later, Mr Shyam Srinivasan, Managing Director and CEO, Federal Bank, said that the bank was looking to reach a milestone of 1,000 branches by August.
As on date, the bank has branch network of 938 branches.
He said that the bank was focused on expanding its footprint in five States (beyond Kerala) including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
On the latest cash reserve ratio cut by the RBI, he said that this was a welcome step and would bring some benefit to the bank.
It also signals the beginning of a policy rate cycle reversal by the central bank, Mr Srinivasan noted.