Grievance Redressal Policy

Introduction

Airtel Payments Bank believes that providing prompt and efficient service is essential not only to attract new customers, but also to retain existing ones. This policy document aims at minimizing instances of customer complaints and grievances through proper service delivery and review mechanism and to ensure prompt redressal of customer complaints and grievances The policy document highlights important points viz. complaint, complaint registration process, complaint management system, timeline for resolution, escalation matrix and the stakeholders entrusted with the task of implementing this policy.

Objective

Airtel Payments Bank’s policy on customer grievances redressal is based on the following principles:-

• Customers are treated fairly at all times.
• A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction relating to the bank’s product/ services or the complaint handling process where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.
• Complaints raised by customers are dealt with courtesy and on time.
•  Customers are informed of avenues to escalate their complaints/grievances within the organization and their rights to alternative remedy, if they are not fully satisfied with the response of the bank to their complaints.
•  Bank will treat all complaints efficiently and fairly as they can damage the bank’s reputation and business if handled otherwise.
•  Bank employees and Business Correspondents of the bank would work in good faith and without prejudice to the interests of the customer.
•  The customer is the focus of the bank’s products, services and people. The bank's business growth depends entirely on the satisfaction of customers with what the Bank offers them.
•   A grievance occurs on account of: ·   The attitudinal/behavioral aspects in dealing with customers ·   Inadequacy of working/operational gaps in standards of services offered/expected and actual services rendered. ·  Technology related.
•  The customer has the right to register his complaint/grievance if he/she is not satisfied with the service provided by the bank. There are various channels a customer can lodge his grievance - In person, by telephone, by email/internet. If a complaint received by any of the above channels are not resolved within the prescribed time frame or he/she is not satisfied with the resolution provided by the bank, he/she can approach Banking Ombudsman with his complaint or resort to other legal avenues for grievance redressals.
•  A suitable mechanism must therefore exist for receiving and redressing customer grievances courteously promptly and satisfactorily. Any mistakes made by the bank should be rectified immediately.

Applicability

Complaint: When a customer complains about service deficiency and if the same is not resolved within the next working day, the contact/request is categorised as a complaint.

Below is the applicability of this policy:

• This policy is applicable to all customers of the Bank.
• For customers who are pension account holders covered under Atal Pension Yojana the complaint has to be disposed of within a period of thirty days of its receipt and a final reply shall be sent to the complainant, containing details of resolution or rejection of the complaint, with reasons thereof recorded in writing

Key Functionaries/Channels for raising complaints

There are several persons, committees as mentioned in the document.  These persons will be in charge of ensuring prompt resolution of complaints. 

• Branch Customer officers:  These officials are placed at the controlling offices.  These officers are also the liaising officers with RBI/Banking Ombudsman.
• Banking Point: The Banking Point can raise complaints on behalf of the customers.
• Principal Nodal Officer:  This should be an employee of a senior rank who will monitor the entire customer service mechanism and identify areas of improvement. 
• Branch Level Customer Service Committee: Branch Level Customer Service Committee of the board acts as a forum to enable customers to meet and interact with the Bank Staff and provide feedback on services provided by the Bank and help in building trust amongst the customers. This committee consists of the Branch staff and customers of the branch (including one senior citizen customer)
• Standing Committee on customer service (SCCS):  This body consists of senior management officials of the Bank, which includes Head Customer Experience and minimum 2 other EC members of the bank and one external customer of the bank.
• Customer Service Committee of the Board (CSCB):The committee’s role is to review the customer service mechanism in the Bank and also deliberate on innovative measures to enhance customer satisfaction.

Registration of Complaints:

Customer can register the complaint in writing, orally, telephonically or via an email. The complaints are broadly classified into (i) technology related (internet banking, mobile banking, failed ATM, disputed PoS etc); (ii) transaction related(Deposit, Cash deposit, cash withdrawal, opening of account, remittance, closure of account etc.); and (iii) Staff related(misbehavior/use of rude language, forcible selling of unsolicited third party products etc.)

Customers can also contact our Customer Care officers over the phone for redressal of issues or send an e-mail at wecare@airtelbank.com or write to us at: Airtel Payments Bank Limited, Plot no. 16 Udyog Vihar, Phase IV, Gurgaon 122015.

All customers registering a complaint will get an acknowledgement of the same from the Bank.

The contact details of various channels are indicated below:

• E mails : wecare@airtelbank.com
• Customer Care: 1800-23400
• At the Bank's website at: Contact Us section

System to capture complaints

Airtel Payments Bank has in place a CRM/CMS system to enable efficient and effective tracking and resolution of complaints. 

• All complaints from the customers, shall be logged into CRM/CMS software. With this the bank shall not only ensure that all the complaints received are recorded and resolved, but shall also ensure effective monitoring / escalation mechanism to the senior functionary responsible so as to make sure that none of the complaints remain unresolved.
• The internal mechanism for recording and resolution of complaints shall function efficiently at all times and shall be monitored on daily basis. The staff are adequately trained for handling complaints efficiently.
• The system will also be used to deal with the issues relating to services provided by outsourced Agencies/Business Correspondents/Access points and the bank will ensure that the respective outsourcing service providers resolve customer issues expeditiously and effectively.
• The system will also be available for resolving issues related to the insurance distribution undertaken by the bank as a certified corporate agent.

Resolution of Complaints

General Guidelines

• The complaints will be analyzed from all possible angles. Specific timelines have been established for handling complaints and disposing them at all levels. 
• Details of the Complaints not redressed within one month will be sent by the concerned Official to the Principal Nodal Officer and keep him updated regarding the status of the complaint.
• The Bank shall ensure that customers are educated and made aware of their rights to approach the Banking Ombudsman. Banking Ombudsman scheme shall be available on the website.

Timeline for responding/resolving complaints

• Normal cases (other than the one mentioned below): 7 working days
• Fraud cases, Legal cases and cases which need retrieval of documents and exceptionally old records): 15 working days
• Cases involving third party including other banks): 30 working days
• NEFT/RTGS complaints will be resolved within 7 working days.
• Chargeback related cases: 45 to 90 working days or as per Card Network Operator  Guidelines
• An acknowledgement SMS gets triggered to the customer within 3 working days post receiving the grievances. The Service Request number gets shared with the customer post registering the grievance and an SMS communication gets triggered within 3 working days post resolution.
• If any case needs additional time, the Bank will inform the customer, the reasons for the delay in resolution and provide expected time lines for resolution of the issue
• There are also stipulated timelines for handling complaints at all levels in Airtel Payments Bank Limited.

Role of customer service Officials

• These Officials are responsible for the resolution of complaints/grievances in respect of customer’s service by the branches/access points. He/she shall also ensure closure of all complaints received at the branches/relationship points. 
• In case the complaint is not resolved to the customer’s satisfaction, they will provide with alternate avenues to escalate the issue.
• If these officials feel that it is not possible at their level to solve the problem, he/she can refer the case to Principal Nodal Officer for guidance.

Escalation of Complaints

• Principal Nodal Officer: If the customer’s issue is not resolved even after contacting various complaint resolution channels, he/she can write to the Principal Nodal Officer. It would be the responsibility of the Principal Nodal Officer to ensure that internal machinery for handling complaints/grievances operates smoothly and efficiently at all levels. Principal Nodal Officer is the nodal point of contact for various Banking Ombudsmen at various RBI Regional Offices.
• Banking Ombudsman: In case the customer is not satisfied with the response from the Bank, customers will have the right of approaching the Banking Ombudsman (BO). The details of BO are made available on the Bank’s website.
• APY Ombudsman: National Pension System (POP- Point of Presence) In case of any queries pertaining to NPS or APY, if your issue remains unresolved after escalation Level 1 /Level 2 or if the bank has not provided a resolution within 30 days customer may choose to refer the matter to Ombudsman’s office. Details of the same are as mentioned below : The Ombudsman, The office of Ombudsman O/o Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, Plot No - 14/A, Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhawan, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110016 Email ID : ombudsman@pfrda.org.in Landline No : 011-26517507 Ext 188
  

Customer service committee of the Board

Review customer grievances and enhance the quality of customer service

Airtel Payments Bank has constituted Customer Service Committee of the Board. The Bank will place before the Customer Service Committee of the Board, all the awards given by the Banking Ombudsman and all the awards remaining unimplemented for more than three months with the reasons thereof. 

An illustrative role of the Customer Service Committee is as under:

• Oversee the implementation of various customer service guidelines as mandated by Reserve Bank of India and Banking Codes and Standards Board of India
• Address issues of systemic deficiencies existing in banks, if any, brought out by the Banking Ombudsman awards;
• Report to the Board instances where awards remained unimplemented without valid reasons and for initiating necessary remedial action.
• Review customer service initiatives and deliberate innovative measures for enhancing the quality of customer service and improving overall service levels.
• Any other issue impacting quality of customer service
• This Committee would also review the functioning of Standing Committee on Customer Service

Standing committee on customer service

The Committee focuses on building and strengthening customer service orientation in the Bank through initiating various measures including simplifying processes for improvement in customer service levels. The Committee holds periodic meetings to discuss service updates, ongoing projects specifically targeted towards improvement of customer service and appropriate actions arising from discussions.

The Committee carries out the following specific functions:

• Evaluate feedback on quality of customer service received
• Review the practice and procedures prevalent in the bank and take necessary corrective action, on an ongoing basis by ensuring through formulation of procedures and operational practices.
• Review comments/feed-back on customer service and implementation of Bank’s Code of Commitments to Customers formulated by Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI).
• Review complaints related to non-compliance of Code of Commitment.

Mandatory Display of Information

• Names, complete address and contact details of the officials who can be contacted for redressal of complaints.
• Name and contact details of the Principal Nodal Officer and Banking Ombudsman under whose jurisdiction the branch/access point falls.

Website Display

• Names and other details of the officials at the Head Office including the name of the Principal Nodal Officer preferably on the first page of the web-site.
• Names and other details of the CMD/CEO and also Line Functioning Heads.

Internal Ombudsmen Scheme implementation

Master Direction - Reserve Bank of India (Internal Ombudsman for Regulated Entities) Directions, 2023: As per the directions, all partially and fully rejected complaints will be routed to Internal Ombudsman for his review and decision. Following are the key points to be adhered to, as per the scheme:

• All partially and fully rejected complaints to be routed to Internal Ombudsman by L2 team on daily basis manually till the auto-routing is enabled in the internal CRM.
• All the complaints rejected by the bank to be escalated to Internal Ombudsman within 20 days of receipt of complaint by the bank and Internal Ombudsman to ensure to share his decision within 10 days of the escalation to him.
• The Internal Ombudsman and bank to ensure the final decision is communicated to the complainant within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of complaint.
• One time review of level 2 interactions (as Service requests or complaints) to be discussed and the SOP document to be signed off with the IO. 
• Subsequently, any change to the SOP to be signed off by the IO prior to implementation.
• If the Internal Ombudsman overrules the decision of the bank to reject or partly reject the complaint, the bank can disagree with the decision of the Internal Ombudsman only with the approval of the Competent Authority such as MD/CEO of the bank.
• Definition of rejection of complaints: - We have identified a list of complaint categories that, if rejected by the backend team (L2 team), need to be forwarded to the IO (Investigating Officer) for further review.

Reporting Requirements

The following reports shall be submitted to the Customer Service Committee of the Board as and when it meets. The reports shall include the following information:

• The total number of complaints received during the reporting period.
• The total number of complaints outstanding at the end of the reporting period
• Ageing of outstanding complaints
• Top issues emanating from analysis of complaints 
• Status of deceased claim settlement received
• Review of Branch Level Customer Service Committee Meeting
• Analysis of BO Awards and Appeals to the Appellate Authority
• Analysis of consumer court cases on annual basis.

Record keeping

Will be defined in the Customer Service Process Document; with respect to Call Records, Customer emails and other customer interactions.

Policy Review & Updates

The Policy will be reviewed annually in January or prior basis the business need.

Regulatory References

This Policy should be read in conjunction with other Bank policies and procedures, which contain specific issues relating to fraud and corruption control. This Policy should also be read in conjunction with the regulatory guidelines on combating fraud and shall be updated in line with the changes made in the regulatory guidelines as and when required