Pinched by RBI’s scathing criticism of the inordinate delays in pension payouts to its customers, the state-run lender has put up advertisements in leading dailies, saying ‘We care for you’

Four months after Moneylife had reported that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had cracked down on the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) and other banks for the inordinate delays in payments faced by government pensioners, SBI has issued an advertisement in leading newspapers that seeks to put customers' worries to rest, asking them to avail of its free helpline services for all pension-related queries.

Earlier, RBI had raised an alarm after a complaint was forwarded by a former highly-placed government officer to the deputy governor of the central bank, outlining the shoddy service given by the country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), in the form of extensive delays in pension payments. Moneylife had written about this development.

(See:http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/4969.html).This former officer had apparently been kept waiting unsuccessfully for ten months to receive his revised pension under the Sixth Pay Commission. This complaint forced the RBI to take a deeper look at the systems put in place by SBI for pension payments. A joint team drawn from both RBI and SBI investigated the matter and found various discrepancies in the way things were being administered.

Taking a serious view of the matter, the RBI has put in a strongly worded letter to the chairman of the bank questioning the lack of customer sensibility despite being a premier bank in the public domain. It has pointed to the absence of an effective system of customer service at the branch level where pensioners normally interface with the front office.

This also forced the RBI to inspect the system at other Agency Banks making pension payments. The findings were more or less the same across all Agency Banks.

In view of the above, the RBI had advised these banks (through a circular dated 9 April 2010), including SBI, to undertake review of the system of attending to customer service and have a pension accounts guide at all branches to assist the pensioners in all their dealings with the bank. Additionally, the RBI had demanded that suitable arrangements be made, to place on the bank website details about the pension calculations, and made available to the pensioners at periodic intervals with sufficient advertisements to that effect.

As with the other banks, RBI demanded that SBI make the payment of the revised pension and arrears within 15 days from the date of receipt of its communication to that effect. Additionally, it also advised the bank to make a penal interest payment of 2% for any delay beyond the due date, which is to be credited to the pensioner's account automatically without any claim from the pensioner on the same day when the bank affords the credit for revised pension or arrears.

RBI sources told Moneylife, "We had asked SBI to look into 1,400 cases where the amount involved was to the tune of Rs30 lakh. These have been satisfactorily dealt with by the bank. SBI makes the largest payouts of pension funds in the country. We are happy that SBI is making efforts to strengthen its customer services."

SBI's advertisement requests customers to call at their helpline number for all pension-related information, including basic and dearness allowance for the past six months, arrears received and commutation. The advertisement also mentions that a pensioner can also register a complaint online by logging on to www.sbi.co.in and filling up the Customer Complaint Form. A Complaint Registration Number will be issued to the complainant.