KARACHI: The Banking Mohtasib (Ombudsman) has provided a monetary relief of around Rs600 million in resolving over 16,000 complaints against banks during the year 2020.
The Banking Mohtasib Pakistan, Muhammad Kamran Shehzad unveiled the annual report 2020 at a press conference on Thursday.
According to the annual report of the office of Banking Mohtasib, during the period around 22,750 new complaints were received while 2,778 complaints were carried forward.
Thus, making total complaints in hand were 25,528, out of which 16,123 complaints were resolved amicably through reconciliation while after formal hearings, findings/ orders were passed in 166 cases.
Around 5,071 complaints were found incomplete and require further information or rejected being frivolous or for want of jurisdiction as the same either pertained to insurance matter or related to microfinance banks or fund managers or related to administrative matter of banks.
Prime Minister’s Portal (Government-owned system based on Mobile Application) was introduced in the year 2019 and complaints related to Banking Sector were referred to BMP Secretariat. During the year under review, the office of Banking Mohtasib received 12,046 complaints through Prime Minister’s Portal.
The report said that an increase of 56% was observed in the receipt of complaints during the year as compared to last year.
Efforts were made to dispose of the complaints expeditiously. However, depending on the complexity, some complaints take longer time to resolve.
People in Punjab province were seen more irritating with the services of the banking system. The Banking Mohtasib received the highest number of complaints i.e. 14,924 against banks located in the province.
It followed by Sindh 4,027, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2,070, Balochistan 317, Azad Kashmir 228, Gilgit Baltistan 68 and overseas 1,114.
During the year, the highest number of complaints lodged against Habib Bank Limited. A sum of 5,317 complaints were filed against the bank during the year 2020; out of which the Mohtasib secretariat received 2,654 complaints and the Prime Minister Portal received 2,663 complaints.
The second highest number of complaints was lodged against United Bank Limited. Around 3,098 complaints were lodged against the bank during the year; out of which 1,562 complaints were filed at Banking Mohtasib and 1,536 submitted at the Prime Minister Portal.
