The Bank of Ghana (BoG) received a total of 321 complaints directly from customers of banks, specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs) and non-deposit taking financial institutions from January to June 2021.
This represents a decline of 27.87% compared with 445 complaints recorded for the same period in 2020.
The decline is largely attributable to the increased awareness of the general public to seek redress from the respective financial institution as a first level in the complaints resolution process.
In its January to June 2021 “Report on Complaints Management Function”, the BoG observed that during the review period, financial service providers resolved most of their customer complaints hence the decline in the number of complaints escalated to the central bank.
Out of the total number of complaints received from customers, 199 complaints were resolved within the required timelines representing a resolution rate of 61.99%.
This represented a decline of 20.7% compared with 368 complaints resolved in the same period of 2020.
The decline was as a result of the complexity of the complaints and the availability of complainants for mediation processes.
Some unresolved complaints also related to locked-up funds with distressed SDIs.
Complaints resolved during the period under review were related mainly to loan transactions including wrong computation of interest rates, wrongful application of penal charges, early loan repayment charges, and credit histories held by licensed credit bureaux.
Others included unauthorised and unexplained debits on accounts and charge-back arising from unsuccessful ATM transactions.
The BoG received a total of 144 complaints against banks, out of which 131 were resolved and 13 were unresolved. In the same period of 2020, 249 complaints were received out of which 241 were resolved and 8 were unresolved.
The report said the unresolved complaints in the period were due mainly to the complex nature of the complaints which required more documentation to facilitate their determination.
Additionally, some of the cases were received in the month of June 2021 and the resolution processes were ongoing as of the end of the reporting period.
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