Among the banks, the share of complaints received against private sector banks was the highest and increased from 34.39 per cent in F.Y.2023-24 to 37.53 per cent in F.Y.2024-25
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, 1 December 2025: The Reserve Bank of India today released the Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme for the period April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. The Annual Report covers the activities under the RB-IOS, 2021 as well as major developments during the year in consumer education and protection and the way forward.
The Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme 2024-25 under the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 provides an insight into the activities of the 24 Offices of the RBI Ombudsman (ORBIOs), Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre (CRPC) and the Contact Centre (CC) during the year.
Currently, the Scheme covers the following regulated entities:
i) Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks, and Non-Scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks with deposits size of Rs50 crore and above as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;
ii) Non-Banking Financial Companies (excluding Housing Finance Companies) which (a) are authorised to accept deposits; or (b) have customer interface, with an assets size of Rs100 crore and above as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;
iii) Payment System Participants; and iv) Credit Information Companies.
Receipt and Disposal of Complaints under the RB-IOS, 2021 framework
Under the RB-IOS, 13,34,244 complaints were received in F.Y.2024-25 as compared to 11,75,075 in F.Y.2023-24, an increase of 13.55 per cent over the previous year. Complaints were received either by email / letter at the CRPC or through Complaint Management System (CMS) portal.
The CRPC received 9,11,384 complaints, out of which, 1,08,331 and 10,589 complaints were sent to the ORBIOs and the Consumer Education and Protection Cells (CEPCs), respectively, for further processing and redressal. Remaining 7,76,336 complaints were disposed as non-complaints / non-maintainable complaints at the CRPC.
As at the end of F.Y.2024-25, 16,128 complaints were pending for disposal at the CRPC. 4. The ORBIOs received 1,87,990 and 1,08,331 complaints through the CMS portal directly and the CRPC, respectively, aggregating to 2,96,321 complaints during F.Y.2024-25, registering an increase of 0.82 per cent over the previous year (2,93,924 complaints in F.Y.2023-24). Complaints received at ORBIOs per lakh accounts decreased from 8.9 complaints in F.Y.2023-24 to 7.7 complaints in F.Y.2024-25 at pan India level.
Out of the total complaints received at the ORBIOs, 91.22 per cent of the complaints were lodged through digital mode using CMS portal or email. The share of complaints from individuals in the total complaints was the highest at 2,58,365 (87.19 per cent). Among various categories of complaints, complaints related to Loan and Advances were the highest in F.Y.2024-25, followed by complaints related to Credit Cards which became the second highest contributor to complaints. Complaints related to mobile/electronic banking decreased by 12.74 per cent year-on-year.
Complaints against the banks formed the largest portion (2,41,601 complaints), accounting for 81.53 per cent of complaints received by the ORBIOs, followed by NBFCs (43,864 complaints) accounting for 14.80 per cent during F.Y.2024-25. Among the banks, the share of complaints received against private sector banks was the highest and increased from 34.39 per cent in F.Y.2023-24 to 37.53 per cent in F.Y.2024-25. However, the share of complaints received against the public sector bank which was the highest in F.Y.2023-24, declined from 38.32 per cent in F.Y.2023-24 to 34.80 per cent in F.Y. 2024-25.
The ORBIOs disposed 2,90,567 complaints (including pending complaints of the previous year) during F.Y. 2024-25, thereby achieving a disposal rate of 93.07 per cent. The ORBIOs disposed 1,80,621 complaints constituting 62.16 per cent of the total complaints as maintainable complaints, while remaining were disposed as non-maintainable complaints. 51.91 per cent of the maintainable complaints were resolved through mutual settlement, conciliation or mediation while 43.36 per cent of the maintainable complaints were rejected.
During the year, 104 Appeals were received by the Appellate Authority against the decisions of the RBI Ombudsmen, of which 98 Appeals were received from the complainants and 6 Appeals were received from the regulated entities (REs).
A Contact Centre (CC) with a toll free facility (14448) provides information / clarifications to the public regarding the mechanism at RBI, guides complainants in filing of complaints, as well as provides the status of complaints already filed with the RBI Ombudsman. The Contact Centre, which is operating from Chandigarh, Kochi and Bhubaneswar, received 9,27,598 calls during F.Y.2024-25, showing an increase of 28.89 per cent over the previous year.
Out of the calls received at the Contact Centre, 60.64 per cent of the calls were attended through the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) facility and 38.59 per cent of the calls were attended directly by the CC personnel. Number of abandoned calls declined significantly in F.Y. 2024-25 and stood at 0.78 per cent of total calls. Among these, 70.43 per cent of calls were received in Hindi, 6.73 per cent of calls were received in English and 22.84 per cent of calls were received in regional languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu).
Other developments during the year :
The major initiatives undertaken during the year in the consumer education and protection vertical are listed below:
i) To prevent and mitigate the potential misuse of mobile numbers, a circular on ‘Prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS – Regulatory prescriptions and Institutional Safeguards’ was issued on January 17, 2025.
ii) The REs were advised to present a complaint statement to their Boards/ Customer Service Committees along with an analysis of complaints received identifying customer service areas with frequent complaints, sources of complaints, systemic deficiencies, and inform corrective actions.
A survey has been undertaken to understand the reasons for the low level of complaints from the rural/semi-urban areas and assess the level of awareness in these areas.
iv) Thematic multimedia campaigns on ‘Grievance Redressal’ and ‘Digital Arrest’ scam were released in November 2024 and February-March 2025, respectively. Two print campaigns in newspapers on ‘Impersonation Frauds’ and ‘Grievance Redressal’ were also undertaken pan India.
v) The RBI Ombudsmen conducted 47 town-hall meetings and 243 awareness programmes during the year 2024-25, with focus on specific groups such as students, senior citizen, women, etc.
vi) The ‘Ombudsman Speak’ event was conducted on March 15, 2025 on the occasion of ‘World Consumer Rights Day’ wherein the RBI Ombudsmen across the country interacted with the local /regional multimedia channels in their respective jurisdiction for spreading awareness – covering aspects related to grievance redressal mechanism, safe digital banking practices and roles/ responsibilities of customers.
Way forward
For the period F.Y.2025-26, the Consumer Education and Protection Department has identified the following goals for enhancing consumer protection and improving grievance redressal mechanism: i) Review of ‘Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021’; ii) Review of guidelines on ‘Strengthening the grievance redressal system at the RE level’; iii) Review of ‘Master Direction - Reserve Bank of India (Internal Ombudsman for Regulated Entities) Directions, 2023’; iv) Issuance of Master Direction on grievance redressal framework in REs; and v) Upgradation of Complaint Management System.
