The Reserve Bank of India is planning to introduce an ‘ombudsman scheme’ for offering cost-free mechanism to redress grievances of customers pertaining to digital transactions.
As the digital payments are gaining momentum in the country, there is an urgent need to appoint a dedicated, cost-free and expeditious grievance redressal mechanism for strengthening consumer confidence.
“It has therefore been decided to implement an ‘Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions’ covering services provided by entities falling under Reserve Bank’s regulatory jurisdiction,” said the RBI.
The scheme will be notified by the end of January next year.
Further, the central bank has also decided to introduce a framework for limiting customer liability in terms of unauthorised electronic payment transactions involving prepaid payment instruments.
The bank has also issued instructions on controlling customer liability in respect of unauthorised electronic transactions pertaining to banks and credit card issuing non-banking financial companies.
“As a measure of consumer protection, it has been decided to bring all customers up to the same level with regard to electronic transactions made by them and extend the benefit of limiting customer liability for unauthorised electronic transactions involving PPIs issued by other entities not covered by the extant guidelines,” it said.
RBI will be issuing the guidelines by the end of December 2018.
