RBI Committee Reviewing Customer Service At Lenders Submits Report
Making consumer rights enforceable and standardising ATM functionalities are among the committee's recommendations.
A Reserve Bank of India committee for the review of customer service standards at Indian lenders has submitted its report, according to a Monday notification by the central bank.
The 'Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards in RBI Regulated Entities' was constituted in May 2022 and was helmed by BP Kanungo, a former deputy governor of the RBI.
The committee was made up of a total of six members and its primary mandate was to evaluate and review the quality of the customer service, identify best practices, and suggest measures for making improvements. The committee observed that Indian regulations and standards on customer protection are largely aligned with international best practices.
Key Recommendations
Major recommendations made by the committee include:
RBI may consider making the charter of customer rights enforceable after reviewing and updating it.
Customer service regulation should be consolidated under the principle of 'same activity, same regulation'.
Regulated entities should keep a database of KYC documents of all customers, linked by a unique customer identifier to eliminate need for repeated KYC at the same entity.
RBI should assess the quality of customer service through periodic and thematic studies at regulated entities.
Sale of third-party products by a regulated entity's sales team should be subject to audit.
There is a need to standardise ATM interfaces and ensure minimum functionalities at all ATMs.
Customer-facing employees should get mandatory training in soft skills to reduce misbehaviour.
RBI may consider stipulating a time limit for the regulated entities to return property documents to borrower from the date of closure of the loan.
Regulated entities may provide alerts to customers during teachable moments, such as warning against sharing of credentials.
RBI should lay down a definition of what constitutes a complaint against a regulated entity.
RBI may develop and publish a "customer service and protection index" for regulated entities.
RBI may examine whether Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation cover may be extended to bank prepaid instruments and non-bank PPIs later.