KARACHI: The number of complaints has been increased by around 51 percent during first nine months of current calendar year against banks including fraud, forgeries and other irregularities, the office of Banking Mohtasib (Ombudsman) said on Monday.
Inspite of COVID-19, major increase has been observed in the number of complaints lodged with the Banking Mohtasib Pakistan against the alleged frauds, forgeries and other irregularities during the first nine months of the current calendar year, 2020 as compared to the same period of last year, 2019.
Almost 19028 complaints were received by the Banking Mohtasib Secretariat from January 01 to September 30, 2020 as against 12624 complaints received in the same period of last year depicting an increase of 50.7%. These also include about 11092 complaints received on the Prime Minister’s Portal relating to banking issues. The increase in number of complaints represents the confidence of general public in the working of the institution of Banking Mohtasib. The Banking Mohtasib Secretaiat disposed of 13488 complaints from January 01, 2020 to September 30, 2020.
The role of Banking Mohtasib is to resolve the grievances of the banking customers amicably, speedily and free of cost. It also protects the interest of the depositors and ensures that banks not only comply with the prescribed rules and regulations of the State bank of Pakistan, but also apply them in fair and judicious manner.
The Banking Mohtasib Pakistan, Muhammad Kamran Shehzad has urged the general public to strictly follow the instructions being given by the banks in their public awareness campaigns of not disclosing their personal and financial credentials to any person. In this way they will be able to protect themselves from any fraud, forgeries etc.
