More power to the customer seems to be the new mantra that the Finance Ministry is preaching to Government-owned financial intermediaries — public sector banks, financial institutions, and public sector insurance companies.
It wants customers of these intermediaries to get access to video-conferencing facilities at branches, regional and zonal offices to enable them to communicate seamlessly with higher authorities.
Better service
In its communication on e-governance, issued to 21 public sector banks (PSBs), 3 financial institutions (FIs), and 7 public sector insurance companies (PSICs), the Ministry said e-governance, through the use of video-conferencing, will improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery and help gradually move towards less paper-based transactions.
Going by the Ministry's directive, customers of PSBs and FIs can hope to get access to video-conferencing facilities at the branches, regional and zonal offices to communicate with higher authorities for sorting out issues such as delays in getting loans, wrongful levy of charges, and deficiency in customer service. In the case of public sector insurance companies, customers will be able communicate with higher authorities regarding delays in claims settlement, mis-selling of insurance products, and deficiency in customer service.
The Ministry's directive is aimed at ensuring that Government-owned financial intermediaries, which are facing stiff competition from private sector counterparts, retain customers through quick and inexpensive redressal of customer grievances.
Further, this move will save customers precious time and money as they will not have to travel to the regional, zonal or head-office of the financial intermediary to get their work done.
It is envisaged that all PSBs, FIs and PSICs would put in place effective and elaborate video-conferencing facilities to review performance of branches and other field units such as zones, regions, and circles up to the district level in such a way that at least one office or branch in the district is connected through such facilities, the Ministry said.
The Ministry wants PSBs, FIs (Nabard, Sidbi and Exim Bank) and PSICs (LIC, National Insurance Company, The New India Assurance Company, The Oriental Insurance Company, United India Insurance Company, ECGC, and Agriculture Insurance Company) to take up the e-governance initiatives in a pro-active manner.
Chief executives are expected to use video-conferencing facilities with their field units to review performance at least once every fortnight, the circular said. Further, the video-conferencing facilities have to be made available to the customers and other constituents of the institution to enable them to communicate with the authorities.
The Ministry also wants field units, branches and lead district managers' offices to be enabled for quick contact.
Ability to communicate with higher authorities in a bank through video-conferencing will empower customers. This will lead to fair treatment of customers. So, the voice of not just the big customer but also small customer will be heard,” said a senior banker.
Transparency bid
The Government expects PSBs, FIs and PSICs to become transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and non-exploitative in all dealings with customers including pricing and quality of service and full disclosure of information.
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