The Finance Minister has now asked politicians, particularly Amar Singh, to complain to the Banking Ombudsman about foreign banks who refuse to give loans and credit cards to politicians, lawyers and the police. The suggestion is amusing only because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) itself is working hard to ensure that the complaints get resolved well before they are escalated to the Ombudsman’s office which is already choked with so many complaints that will take at least three years to resolve.

It is much too early to say how effectively RBI’s policy will work, but it has already made an excellent start with monitoring Citibank's Fly-for-Sure scheme, where over 35,000 people had apparently qualified for a free ticket by spending a specified amount on their credit card.

The bank was probably overwhelmed by the response and may have dumped its promised gift but for RBI's class action initiative. As reported by us earlier, the RBI put the onus on Citibank to ensure that every complaint was resolved. The impact was dramatic. Scores of card holders received their free ticket, but we are still receiving the occasional email from card holders suggesting that 100 per cent compliance is still not achieved.

Similarly, RBI responded to complaints about the opaqueness of service charges by asking banks to post key charges on the home page of their website. Only four banks had complied with this order at the end of May and RBI had to crack the whip again to ensure compliance.

... contd.