More than half of Indian families find their banks inefficient, survey reveals

Bengaluru: More than half of Indian families (59%) surveyed found their banks to be ‘bureaucratic and inefficient’ when it comes to re-enabling online access to their bank accounts, while 63% stated that they have lost online access to their accounts because of issues either with KYC, login credentials or because their accounts have been made dormant by the banks.

This is part of a survey conducted by LocalCircles, released on Tuesday. The survey received over 54,000 responses from customers from over 334 districts in India. LocalCircles said that 42% respondents were from tier 1 cities, 27% from tier 2 cities and 31% respondents were from tier 3 and 4 districts.

“Even as banks continue to invest in digital solutions to meet customer expectations like easy-to-use interfaces and personalized experiences, the problems faced by consumers are arising due to sudden changes in rules,” the survey stated, adding that different banks appear to have different rules and safeguards for accessing online banking.

The complaints received by the Reserve Bank of India’s Ombudsman reached a record-high of 9,34,000 in the previous financial year (2023-24) showcasing the declining customer service from banks. In fact, complaints to the ombudsman grew at a compound average rate of almost 50% per year over the past two years.

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra recently brought attention to this alarming trend, and issued a diktat to banks to improve their customer service. “In this age of competition, we would not survive long if we do not provide quality service to our customers,” he said at an event.

As per the survey, 34% families have one or more individuals with bank accounts that they are not able to access online. Customers primarily face problems with regard to their KYC verifications which accounts for 23% of families not being able to access at least one of their bank accounts online, the survey stated.