Against my PLS Account with National Bank of Pakistan, Main Branch Karachi for the last 6-7 years every year twice I have to perform a ritual first to write to the branch informing them about non-receipt of my six monthly statement and thereafter finally to the President of the Bank.
During these 6-7 years except for once or twice I have never received the original statement at its own but only copies after reminders after reminders. On the establishment of Banking Mohtasib, I approached the Mohtasib.
My understanding of the ombudsman system universally is that a Mohtasib sees the complaint, seeks defendant department's comments etc and finally issues his written verdict which invariably contains brief of the complaint, views of defendant agency, after counter rejoinder of views, his own observation on the whole issue and finally his decision.
The banking Mohtasib merely advised me the name of a senior VP of the Bank to whom in future I should write directly, if need be. What happened to my complaint and what was the outcome of Ombudsman's investigation on the issue, namely if my complaint was correct or wrong, if the bank was found on fault or not etc I never knew.
That in other words to me meant the banking bureaucracy got escaped (and of course got protected which can be judged from the fact that the said SVP never ever attended to even reference of ombudsman's advice. Of course due to my own mistake my wrong bank account was notified to some companies who kept on sending the dividends on my said wrong account noted with them.
As per banking policy all such dividends or cheques received by a wrong beneficiary name or account are bound to be returned back to the sender companies. None of these companies confirm if they got back those dividends warrants. When I write to the branch or the concerned SVP no response is given. But more interestingly approximately 90% bank statements in the country get lost in mail and approximately 10% do reach.