• The ombudsman mechanism for complaint redressal is not just available for banks. The RBI has separate ombudsman systems for non-banking financial companies and digital transactions. The banking ombudsman has been in place since 2006, while the one for NBFCs came in 2018 and the one for digital transactions came in as early as 2019.

About NBFC Ombudsman

• The NBFC ombudsman was first announced for deposit-taking NBFCs. It has been recently extended to other NBFCs as well. However, this scheme is applicable to NBFCs having an asset size of ?100 crore and above.
• At present, it has four offices— at Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata. The complaints can be filed offline or through an e-mail.
• Similar to the banking ombudsman, you first need to approach the NBFC for your dispute resolution.
• The complaint can be made on the grounds of non-payment or inordinate delay in the payment of interest on deposits or levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer or failure to ensure transparency in the contract or loan agreement, among others.
• For disputes like transactions through e-wallets or other payment service providers regulated by the RBI, you can now take up the matter with the ombudsman for digital transactions.
• The ombudsman scheme covers broad categories of digital transactions, including failed transactions and where the amount has been debited from the user’s account but not credited to the merchant account.
• As of now, RBI has listed 21 office addresses—the existing offices of the banking ombudsman—where you can file your complaints. You can also send it via email. The resolution process is similar to that of the banking ombudsman, wherein the ombudsman will first attempt to settle the dispute through mutual agreement, and then pass an award if it is not settled mutually.