He said that two initiatives of RBI – Retail Direct Scheme and Integrated Ombudsman Scheme – will also promote financial inclusion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched two customer centric initiatives reserve Bank of India (RBI) with the objective of providing opportunities to retail investors to participate in the Government securities market and contribute to nation building.
“The RBI’s two initiatives – the Retail Direct Scheme and the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme – will also promote financial inclusion,” he said.
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Launching two innovative, customer-centric initiatives, the Prime Minister said that these schemes will expand the scope of investment and improve the customer grievance redressal mechanism.
He said that the Retail Direct Scheme would facilitate small investors to earn assured returns by investing in securities and would also help the government to raise funds for nation building.
On the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), he said, it aims to further improve the grievance redressal mechanism for redressal of customer complaints against entities regulated by the central bank.
With the launch of the scheme, he said, “One Nation-One Lokpal” has become a reality. The RBI Retail Direct Scheme aims to increase access to the government securities market for retail investors. It provides a new opportunity for retail investors to invest directly in securities issued by the Central and State Governments.
Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities accounts with RBI online free of cost. Taking advantage of technological advancements, the scheme provides a portal avenue to invest in Central Government Securities, Treasury Bills, State Development Loans and Sovereign Gold Bonds.
This scheme places India in the list of select countries providing such facility.
This scheme (RB-IOS) will remove the limitations of jurisdiction as well as the limited grounds of complaints. RBI will provide a single reference point for customers to submit documents, track the status of complaints lodged and provide feedback. Complaints that are not covered under the Ombudsman Scheme will continue to be addressed by the Customer Education and Protection Cell (CEPC), which is located in 30 Regional Offices of RBI.
The number of complaints against various regulated entities has increased exponentially with increasing awareness, digital penetration and financial inclusion. According to RBI data, the number of complaints increased from 1.64 lakh in 2017-18 to 3.30 lakh in 2019-20.
RBI has taken several steps in the recent past to strengthen the customer grievance redressal system of regulated entities, including issuing guidelines for strengthening the Internal Ombudsman, graded regulatory and supervisory action and the introduction of a Grievance Management System (CMS) in 2019. Includes launch.
RBI after review decided to integrate the three Ombudsman Schemes into one and simplified the scheme by covering all complaints related to deficiency in service by centralizing the receipt and initial processing of complaints to enhance process efficiency.
RBI’s alternative grievance redressal mechanism currently comprises three Ombudsman Schemes – the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS), introduced in 1995, the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (OS-NBFCs), 2018 and the Ombudsman for Digital Transactions. Scheme (OSDT), 2019.
The schemes are administered through the 22 offices of the RBI Ombudsman (ORBIO). Complaints that do not come under the purview of the Ombudsman mechanism are handled by the Consumer Education and Protection Cell (CEPC) functioning at 30 Regional Offices of the Reserve Bank of India.
The three schemes that were developed over different periods had specific grounds for complaints that acted as a limiting factor, different grounds for complaints, which led to unequal redressal among customers of different entities, and different compensation. had structures.
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