The working of the banking sector in some respects so often leads to dissatisfaction and the need for an agency to address the grievances of the people has been felt in relation to various transactions that they undertake with the banks. Towards this end the Banking Ombudsman Scheme proved very effective under which the Reserve Bank of India is the authority to appoint a person as the Ombudsman to redress the complaints of the customers against deficiency in banking services. It is a quasi-judicial authority having the power to summon the parties involved to find an effective solution to the matter complained through mediation. All Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Scheduled Primary Co-operative Banks come within the purview of it.

The matters which the Banking Ombudsman can receive and consider can described as follows:

• Non-payment or unusual delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills etc;

• Non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of small denomination notes tendered for any purpose and charging of commission for this purpose.

• Non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of coins tendered and for charging commission for this purpose;

• Non-payment or delay in payment of inward remittances;

• Failure to issue or delay in issue of drafts, pay orders or bankers' cheques;

• Non-adherence to prescribed working hours;

• Failure to hounour guarantees or letter of credit commitments;

• Failure to provide or delay in providing a banking facility other than loan and advamces promised in writing by a bank or its direct selling agents;

• Delays, non-credit of proceeds to parties' accounts, non-payment of deposit or non-observance of the RBI directives, if any, applicable to rate of interest on deposits in any Savings, Current or other account maintained with a bank;

• Delays in receipt of export proceeds, handling of export bills, collection of bills etc. provided the said complaints relate to the bank's operations in India;

• Refusal to open deposit accounts without any valid reason for refusal;

• Levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer;

• Non-adherence to the instructions of RBI on ATM/Debit Card operations;

• Non-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension to the extent the grievance can be attributed to the action on the part of the bank concerned;

• Refusal to accept or delay in accepting payment towards taxes as required by RBI or Government;

• Refusal to issue or delay in issuing or failure to service or delay in servicing or redemption of Government securities;

• Forced closure of deposit accounts without due notice or sufficient reason;

• Refusal to close or delay in closing the accounts;

• Non-adherence to the fair practices code as adopted by the bank.