RBI extends ombudsman scheme to NBFCs
26 Apr 2019
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today announced the extension of the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), 2018 to eligible non-deposit taking non-banking financial companies (NBFC-NDs) having asset size of Rs100 crore or above with customer interface.
The announcement made through a notification dated 26 April 2019, in line with the announcement in RBI’s Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies of the Monetary Policy Statement dated 4 April 2019.
RBI has excluded non-banking financial company-infrastructure finance company (NBFC-IFC), core investment company (CIC), infrastructure debt fund-non-banking financial company (IDF-NBFC) and NBFC under liquidation from the ambit of the scheme.
The Scheme was launched on 23 February 2018 for redressal of complaints against NBFCs registered with RBI under Section 45-IA of the RBI Act, 1934 and covered all deposit accepting NBFCs to begin with. It provides a cost-free and expeditious complaint redressal mechanism relating to deficiency in the services by NBFCs covered under the scheme. The offices of the NBFC Ombudsmen are functioning at four metro centres, viz, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi and handle complaints of customers in the respective zones.
The scheme also provides for an appellate mechanism under which the complainant / NBFC has the option to appeal against the decision of the ombudsman before the appellate authority.