The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday decided to include credit information companies (CICs), also called credit bureaus, under the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) framework. This will help consumers resolve their concerns to gain timely access to credit and be in control of their finances.
The CICs in India are CIBIL, Experian Credit Information Company of India, Equifax Credit Information Services, and CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services.
In a statement on developmental and regulatory policies, the RBI said, “The Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) 2021, covers regulated entities (REs) such as scheduled commercial banks including urban cooperative banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and non-scheduled primary co-operative banks with a deposit size of Rs 50 crore and above. In order to make the RB-IOS more broad-based, it has been decided to bring credit information companies (CICs) also under the ambit of RB-IOS 2021.”
It added that this will provide a cost-free alternate redress mechanism to customers of REs for grievances against CICs. Further, with a view to strengthen the internal grievance redress of the CICs and to make it more efficient, it has also been decided to bring the CICs under the Internal Ombudsman (IO) framework.
Neeraj Dhawan, country manager of Experian India, said, “It was also announced that as a part of its Development and Regulatory Policies, to improve the credit ecosystem in the country, CICs will be brought under the purview of the RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. This will offer a faster redressal mechanism for grievances. Also, CICs will be required to have their own internal ombudsman (IO) framework. This is a positive step that will help consumers resolve their concerns to gain timely access to credit and be in control of their finances.”
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) has improved the customer grievance redress mechanism. The turnaround time of grievance redress under RB-IOS has declined considerably.
“In order to make the RB-IOS more broad-based, it has been decided to include CICs under the RB-IOS framework. This will provide a cost-free alternative redress mechanism for grievances against CICs. Further, with a view to strengthen the internal grievance redress by CICs themselves, it has been decided to mandate the CICs to have their own internal ombudsman (IO) framework,” he added.
Yes Securities in its report said this will foster more discipline on the part of CICs in terms of how they analyse borrower data before making hitherto unilateral numerical pronouncements about borrower creditworthiness.
The RBI said it has been done to provide a cost-free alternate redress mechanism to customers for grievances against CICs.
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