The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021 (RB-IOS, 2021/ the Scheme) was launched on November 12, 2021. It integrates the erstwhile three Ombudsman schemes of RBI namely, (i) the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006; (ii) the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies, 2018; and (iii) the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions, 2019. These schemes had limited and different grounds of complaints and limited coverage of REs, apart from jurisdiction related restrictions. RB-IOS, 2021 provides for cost-free redress of customer complaints involving deficiency in services rendered by entities regulated by RBI, if not resolved to the satisfaction of the customers or not replied to within a period of 30 days by the RE.

In addition to integrating the three existing schemes, the Scheme also includes under its ambit additional REs, namely, Non-Scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks with a deposit size of ₹50 crore and above and Credit Information Companies. The Scheme adopts ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ approach by making the RBI’s Ombudsman mechanism jurisdiction neutral.

Response: Card issuers are prohibited from issuing unsolicited credit cards and are required to seek prior and explicit consent from the customer before issuing a card. However, if the customer receives an unsolicited card, he/she should refrain from activating or providing consent for activation of card through OTP or any other means. If no consent is received for activating the card, the card-issuer is required to close the credit card account without any cost to the customer within seven working days from the date of seeking confirmation from the customer and shall also intimate the customer that the credit card account has been closed. Subsequent to receiving the intimation from the card-issuer that the card account has been closed, the customer shall destroy the card. Further, the customer may file a complaint with the card-issuer against the issuance of unsolicited card and escalate it to the RBI Ombudsman as per Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (please refer to the response of query 17 below).

Ans. Any person who contravenes any provision of the FEMA, 1999 [except section 3(a)] or contravenes any rule, regulation, notification, direction or order issued in exercise of the powers under this Act or contravenes any condition subject to which an authorization is issued by the Reserve Bank, can apply for compounding to the Reserve Bank. Applications seeking compounding of contraventions under section 3(a) of FEMA, 1999 may be submitted to the Directorate of Enforcement (DOE).

Ans.: The survey is conducted annually.

Banks can pay interest on savings bank accounts at quarterly or longer rests.

Non-competitive bidding means the bidder would be able to participate in the auctions of dated government securities without having to quote the yield or price in the bid. Thus, he will not have to worry about whether his bid will be on or off-the-mark; as long as he bids in accordance with the scheme, he will be allotted securities fully or partially.

The Banking Ombudsman is a senior official appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to redress customer complaints against deficiency in certain banking services covered under the grounds of complaint specified under Clause 8 of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006 (As amended upto July 1, 2017).

Primarily, there are two variants of ECS - ECS Credit and ECS Debit. ECS Credit is used by an institution for affording credit to a large number of beneficiaries (for instance, employees, investors etc.) having accounts with bank branches at various locations within the jurisdiction of a ECS Centre by raising a single debit to the bank account of the user institution. ECS Credit enables payment of amounts towards distribution of dividend, interest, salary, pension, etc., of the user institution. ECS Debit is used by an institution for raising debits to a large number of accounts (for instance, consumers of utility services, borrowers, investors in mutual funds etc.) maintained with bank branches at various locations within the jurisdiction of a ECS Centre for single credit to the bank account of the user institution. ECS Debit is useful for payment of telephone / electricity / water bills, cess / tax collections, loan installment repayments, periodic investments in mutual funds, insurance premium etc., that are periodic or repetitive in nature and payable to the user institution by large number of customers etc.

The availability of non-competitive bidding facility in an auction will be announced along with the respective press release and the information is made available on Reserve Bank’s website.

RBI carries out the general banking business of the governments through its own offices and commercial banks, both public and private, appointed as its agents. Section 45 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, provides for appointment of scheduled commercial banks as agents at all places or at any place in India, for purposes that it may specify, “having regard to public interest, convenience of banking, banking development and such other factors which in its opinion are relevant in this regard”.

Reserve Bank of India maintains the Principal Accounts of Central as well as State Governments at its Central Accounts Section, Nagpur. It has put in place a well-structured arrangement for revenue collection as well as payments on behalf of Government across the country. A network comprising the Government Banking Divisions of RBI and branches of agency banks appointed under Section 45 of the RBI Act carry out the government transactions. At present all the public sector banks and select private sector banks act as RBI's agents. Only designated branches of agency banks can conduct government banking business.

Ans. Foreign exchange can be purchased from any authorised person, such as an AD Category-I bank and AD Category II. Full-Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs) are also permitted to release exchange for business and private visits.

To widen the access of foreign exchange facilities to residents and tourists while ensuring efficient customer service through competition.

Ans: NEFT offers the following advantages for funds transfer or receipt:

• Round the clock availability on all days of the year.

• Near-real-time funds transfer to the beneficiary account and settlement in a secure manner.

• Pan-India coverage through large network of branches of all types of banks.

• The beneficiary need not visit a bank branch for depositing the paper instruments. Remitter can initiate the remittances from his / her home / place of work using internet banking, if his / her bank offers such service.

• Positive confirmation to the remitter by SMS / e-mail on credit to beneficiary account.

• Penal interest provision for delay in credit or return of transactions.

• No levy of charges by RBI from banks.

• No charges to savings bank account customers for online NEFT transactions.

• The transaction charges have been capped by RBI.

• Besides funds transfer, NEFT system can be used for a variety of transactions including payment of credit card dues to the card issuing banks, payment of loan EMI, inward foreign exchange remittances, etc.

• The transaction has legal backing.

• Available for one-way funds transfers from India to Nepal.