The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to appoint an internal ombudsman. The central bank’s advisory is directed at all public sector banks, and some private sector and foreign banks. The internal ombudsman to be designated as chief customer service officer will be responsible for taking care of customer grievances. RBI does not want inside candidates to be appointed to the position. The central bank said it wants to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks. While all public sector banks have been asked to appoint the ombudsman, the private sector and foreign banks given this advisory are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank and HSBC. RBI wants the internal ombudsman to become a forum available to bank customers for grievance redressal before they can even approach the Banking Ombudsman.
