For long, individual borrowers have often complained of discrepancies in their credit reports issued by credit information companies (CICs), which result in financial setbacks. For instance, loan applications being rejected or poor credit score making them ineligible for best interest rates from financial institutions.
Now, such borrowers can lodge such grievances against credit information companies (CICs) with the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) 2021. “This will provide a cost-free alternative redress mechanism for grievances against CICs,” RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced during his statement on monetary policy review.
Moreover, these companies – TransUnion CIBIL, CRIF Highmark, Equifax and Experian – will also have to put in place an internal Ombudsman framework.
Also read: RBI’s new ombudsman scheme: Here’s how you can file complaints
“At present, people with complaints against these CICs had no recourse if these companies failed to respond to their grievances. Such borrowers will get some relief once now that it is being brought under the ambit of integrated ombudsman mechanism. Once the ombudsman takes over such complaints, things will start rolling faster,” says financial consultant VN Kulkarni, former banker and credit counsellor.
RBI’s integrated ombudsman scheme covers entities regulated by the central bank, including scheduled commercial banks, urban cooperative banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and non-scheduled primary co-operative banks with a deposit size of over Rs 50 crore.
You can file a complaint with the ombudsman in multiple ways. To file the complaint online, you can log on to the website https://cms.rbi.org.in. You can also register your complaint by sending an email to CRPC@rbi.org.in or by calling the contact centre on toll-free number 14448. You can also send your complaint physically by filling the form and sending it to the ‘Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre’ set up by RBI in Chandigarh.
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