Summary of this article
RBI received 2.96 lakh complaints in FY25.
Complaints mainly concern loans and digital banking issues.
Customers can file grievances via RBI’s CMS portal.
Complaints from customers with the Ombudsman office of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rose marginally in FY25 to 296,000 from 293,000 a year ago, according to an RBI published on May 29, 2025. The bulk of them was against banks, followed by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), other non-bank participants and credit information companies (CICs).
Rising Complaints And RBI’s Response
Loans, advances and digital banking services were the major areas of customer grievances, RBI said in its annual report. However, the sustained growth in complaints seemed to reflect increasing consumer awareness rather than deterioration in standards of service, it said. To improve financial literacy, RBI also conducted 47 townhall meetings and 239 awareness programmes during the year targeting students, senior citizens and women, among others.
Public campaigns were also run to educate users on Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS), the process of lodging complaints, and steps to prevent digital fraud. Going ahead, under its Utkarsh 2.0 strategy for FY26, RBI proposes to revisit and refine the provisions of the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) 2021. It will establish a centralised complaint processing Centre and upgrade the complaint management system for faster and more uniform grievance redressal across different financial institutions.
When Can You Approach The RBI Ombudsman
You can write to RBI Ombudsman if:
a) Your bank, NBFC, or the payment app has not replied to your written complaint within a month;
b) You are not satisfied with their response.
This scheme covers delays in payments, unauthorised transactions, hidden charges, and deficiencies in service. It does not, however, cover commercial decisions of the bank, such as rejection of loan or credit card, except where such refusal is linked to deficiency in service.
How To File Your Complaint
First, you have to file a complaint in writing to the bank itself. If there is no resolution within 30 days, you may forward your grievance to RBI using the complaint management system (https://cms.rbi.org.in), or email your complaint to mail id (crpc@rbi.org.in), or send by post to: Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre, 4th Floor, Sector 17, Chandigarh-160017.
You can also call the toll-free number 14448 for RBI for assistance. At the time of submitting the complaint, mention your contact details, name of the institution, description of the complaint, and documents related to the complaint. An acknowledgment with a complaint number by which you can track your case will be sent to you immediately.
If you are not satisfied with the decision of the Ombudsman, you can appeal to the Appellate Authority within RBI within 30 days of the approval or rejection.
The Ombudsman Scheme was set up in 1995, which made it easy, inexpensive, and accessible for customers to get redress of their grievances.
Compensation can be granted in case there is loss or harassment due to deficiency in service, while the procedure remains absolutely free of cost.
