The office of Banking Ombudsman has obtained numerous complaints from clients about techniques used by bank loan recovery agents which breach the norms laid down by the RBI for them. Car loan lenders, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have the highes number of complaints registered against them.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “RBI has reported that 120 complaints had been received by 15 Banking Ombudsman Offices in year 2009-10 regarding non-observance of RBI guidelines on engagement of recovery agents by private sector banks”.
He added, “Further, it has also been reported that HDFC Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd have reportedly violated the said guidelines”.
He said that norms for behavior of recovery agents have been issued to banks listing the recruitment and training method of recovery agents. Banks have been told to regulate major aspects such as time of calling the clients and secrecy of customer information etc at the time of training recovery agents.
Banks have also been told to carry out an intermittent check on the functioning and technique of these recovery agents.
Get the best deals on loan offers
Some useful personal finance calculators