RBI committee proposes new rules to improve customer service standards| Here are key recommendations

RBI

An expert panel appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  under the chairmanship of former deputy governor B.P. Kanungo has proposed a list of recommendations to improve customer service standards in regulated entities.

The proposals include reviewing charges levied by entities and extending deposit insurance cover to bank PPIs (prepaid instruments) and later to non-bank PPIs. The central bank has set up this panel on May 23, 2022.

Here are some major recommendation from the report:

Incentives and disincentive

According to the panel recommendations, the central bank may put in place a suitable structure of incentives and disincentives to encourage regulated entities to take proactive steps towards improvement in customer protection, where service is deficient.

Also read: RBI committee proposes new rules to improve customer service standards

Assess customer service quality

The RBI may should assess the quality of customer service through periodic and regular thematic studies across the REs to ensure better compliance to the customer service guidelines.

The findings from this assessment should be added in to the framework to improve the Internal Grievance Redress and proposed ratings of REs.

Mis-selling

The report chart out that cross selling of third - party products by the sales team of the regulated entities should be subject to verification by the audit function.

This is to ensure that there was no mis-selling and all instructions / guidelines with respect to sale of such products were adhered to, the committee said.

Complaint resolution time

The expected time to resolve the customers’ complaint should be informed to the complainant and if turn around time is exceeded, the same should be communicated with reasons for delay.

Further, till the recommendation for a common complaint portal is put in place, the REs should have a system to enable the complainant to track the progress in processing of the complaint.

Training of staff

The proposed new rules suggest that those staff facing customers should undergo mandatory training in soft skills to reduce instances of misbehaviour by the errant staff / officers.

While, adequate knowledge and in-depth understanding of the internal guidelines and the regulatory instructions must be an essential requirement for posting employees in IGR-related positions.

Also read: Banking Central | Dear bank customer, think again lest you hit that link

Online facility to report cybercrime

To register complaints for fradulent transactions, an on-line facility be made available on the Indian Cybercrime Reporting Portal.

The complaint should trigger an automated alert mail from the victim’s bank to beneficiary bank / card issuer / merchants for blocking the flow of funds, report said.

The beneficiary bank must immediately block equivalent amount in the account till detailed verification of the reported transaction in the complaint is completed.