Customers who have complaints against Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) have reason to cheer.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently introduced the ombudsman scheme for redressal of complaints against NBFCs. The decision was announced by the RBI in its monetary policy statement on February 7, 2018.

The scheme will provide a free-of-cost and expeditious complaint redressal mechanism relating to deficiency in the services provided by NBFCs.

The Ombudsmen’s offices will operate from the four metro cities of Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi, and will handle complaints of customers in the respective zones, the RBI said.

The scheme will first cover all deposit-taking NBFCs. It would then be extended to cover NBFCs having customer interface with assets of Rs100 crore and above, based on the experience gained.

The scheme also provides for an appellate mechanism under which the customer and the NBFC have the option to appeal against the decision of the Ombudsman before the Appellate Authority.

Grounds for complaint

Customers may file a complaint against an NBFC under 13 different grounds. Prominent among them include non-payment/delay in payment of interest, delay or non-repayment of deposits, failure or refusal to provide sanction letter/terms and conditions of sanction in the vernacular language or a language understood by the borrower, apart from failure to ensure transparency in the contract/loan agreement.