The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has asked the banks and development financial institutions (DFIs) to immediately identify and entrust responsibility to an appropriate senior person to deal with all sorts of complaints, either received directly by them or referred through different agencies or institutions, including the SBP.
In a circular issued here on Tuesday, the SBP referred to several complaints received every day by the SBP, stating that the concerned banks or DFIs, due to the bureaucratic attitude/behaviour, were not attending to their grievances, resulting in either financial losses or damage to their businesses.
The circular said it had also been noted that the complaints forwarded by the SBP to various banks or DFIs were also not responded to promptly, which resulted in delay in deciding the issue.
"This state of affairs indicates that banks and /DFIs either do not have a unit or section to deal with the complaints or do not have a proper mechanism and procedure for resolution of public and clients' grievances.
"This has been viewed with concern by the SBP," it said, adding: "In case where some of the banks and DFIs already have entrusted the work to a unit or section, the same may be strengthened appropriately."
However, the SBP advised the banks/DFIs to observe the following minimum guidelines:
-- Identify and entrust the responsibility to an appropriate senior person to handle all sorts of complaints received.
-- The name, designation and contact details (phone, fax, e-mail, mobile etc) of a person so identified along with an officer working with him/her in this area may be sent to the SBP immediately.
In case of any change in the name of concerned officer(s), the same may be notified along with aforesaid detail within two days to the Director, Banking Policy Department.
The person and section/unit entrusted the work must:
-- Address/handle and investigate the complaints in a fair and prompt manner.
-- Devise a system for redressal of the complaints in an appropriate and courteous manner and the reply to the complainant must be clear and indicate the reasons/rationale of the decision being conveyed to him/her. If possible, the reply may be sent in Urdu language where the complainant has used the language other than English.
-- Identify the complaints of recurring nature and ensure that immediate corrective action is taken in that area.
-- Monitor the status of complaints received against the banks/DFIs, analyse the data periodically for improving this activity. A regular report, containing statistics on the volume and type of complaints received, settled/redressed, outstanding etc, should be submitted periodically to the management for review.
-- The complaints must be responded to within a period of 10 working days. Where a complaint requires further investigation, an interim reply must be sent, indicating the reasons for the time to be taken and expected date of action/response. However, in any case, the final reply may be sent within a period not exceeding 45 working days, barring cases where reasonable grounds exist on record for not complying within the prescribed time period.
-- Regular audit of complaint unit/section must be conducted by internal auditors to check the performance, effectiveness and utility of unit/section.
To communicate to their customers and for expeditious resolution of complaints/grievances, the banks/DFIs, within one month from the date of issuance of this circular, shall make appropriate arrangements to:-
-- Prepare a leaflet indicating the procedure for lodging a complaint and its resolution both in English and Urdu for the convenience of their customers and also paste it on notice boards at each of their branch/office as also on their website (if available).
-- Supply a copy of the leaflet to customers upon request.
-- Make available copies of their internal complaint handling procedures, in each of their branch and office to which customers have access for expeditious disposal of complaints.
Banks/DFIs must also ensure that where a complaint needs to be probed further, the same may be investigated by an employee who is not directly involved in that particular complaint.
The staff dealing with complaints should be provided appropriate training to enhance their skills in expeditious resolution of complaints and related matters/issues.
-- The complaints forwarded by the State Bank of Pakistan should also be handled by the person/ section/unit as indicated in paras 2(i), 2(ii) and 2(iv) above. The designated person shall be the contact person for the SBP.
The State Bank of Pakistan, during the course of inspection, would particularly check the performance, effectiveness and functioning of the Complaint Section. Strict action as per provisions of law shall be taken against the bank/DFI and the concerned staff members of the complaint section/unit for non-compliance of instructions and negligence in handling complaints.
In determining the overall assessment/performance of the banks during the course of onsite inspection, the functioning of complaint section/unit, besides other, shall also be taken into account.