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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced its Banking Ombudsman (BO) scheme as an expeditious and inexpensive forum for bank customers for the resolution of complaints relating to certain services rendered by banks.
However, over the years, the BO is also proving to be a white elephant living in an ivory tower and more interested in protecting banks at the cost of customers. One reason could be the lack of power with the BO to act against wrongdoings of banks. However, in many grievance redressal cases, it is found that there was complete lack of interest or understanding of issues raised by consumers in the BO offices. In fact, the BO even bars customers from filing an appeal or raising the grievance again. But more about it later.