The Reserve Bank of India organised the Annual Conference of RBI Ombudsmen, on March 15, 2024 in Mumbai. The theme of the conference was “Protecting the Consumers – Building Robust Systems and Procedures”. The Conference was attended by Chairman/ Managing Director & CEOs of regulated entities from major banks, NBFCs, Non-bank Payment System Participants, NPCI, senior officials of RBI along with the RBI Ombudsmen and Deputy RBI Ombudsmen. Shri Shaktikanta Das, Governor, inaugurated the conference.

The Reserve Bank of India released the Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme for the period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. This is the first full-year report after the launch of Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 in November 2021. The Annual Report covers

As part of the Reserve Bank’s continuing engagement with regulated entities, the second Conference of Internal Ombudsmen on the theme “Orchestrating Customer Delight through an Empowered Internal Ombudsman”, was held in Mumbai on January 16, 2024. This Conference was attended by Managing Director & CEOs, Executive Director in-charges of customer service verticals, Internal Ombudsmen, Principal Nodal Officers of select regulated entities from among Banks, NBFCs and CICs and senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India.

As announced in the ‘Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies’ issued as part of Monetary Policy Statement dated October 06, 2023, the Reserve Bank, has issued Master Direction - Reserve Bank of India (Internal Ombudsman for Regulated Entities) Directions, 2023 to harmonise the instructions applicable to the various regulated entities on the Internal Ombudsman (IO) mechanism.

SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank continue to be identified as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs). While ICICI Bank continues to be in the same bucketing structure as last year, SBI and HDFC Bank move to higher buckets – SBI shifts from bucket 3 to bucket 4 and HDFC Bank shifts from bucket 1 to bucket 2. For SBI and HDFC Bank, the higher D-SIB buffer requirements on account of the bucket increase will be effective from April 1, 2025. The additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) requirement will be in addition to the capital conservation buffer.

RBI-Retail Direct Scheme was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on November 12, 2021. Under the Scheme, individual investors are permitted to open Retail Direct Gilt account with the Reserve Bank of India, using an online portal (https://rbiretaildirect.org.in), through which investments in Government Securities can be made in primary and secondary market. The scheme has brought Government Securities within easy reach of retail investors by simplifying the process of investment.

As part of the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies released along with the Monetary Policy Statement on April 08, 2022, the Reserve Bank of India had set up the Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards in RBI Regulated Entities (REs) on May 23, 2022 under the Chairmanship of Shri B.P. Kanungo, former Deputy Governor, RBI. The terms of the reference of the Committee were to evaluate and review the quality of the customer service, examine the ev