KARACHI: Complaints against banks during the past four years increased by more than 100 per cent, a review published by the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday said.

The SBP conducted a four year (2016-2019) review of complaints against banks, micro-finance banks (MFBs) and development finance institutions (DFIs). The objective of the review was to gain insights on effectiveness of complaint management at banks.

`The review indicates that complaints against banks during past four years have increased from 774,656 in 2016 to 1,549,837 in 2019,` said the SBP.

However, the SBP provided a number of reasons for the increase in the complaints and said that about 97 per cent complaints were addressed the by the banks themselves.

Thisincreasein complaints can be attributed toimproved visibility and access of dispute resolution mechanism coupled with enhanced consumer awareness, said the SBP, adding that this is also due to the fact that number and value of banking transactions have increased substantially.

According to the review, the volume and value of ATM and debit card transactions have increased by 101pc and 110pc, respectively, over the reporting period. The number of deposit accounts per ATM and per branch showed an increase of 62pc and 81pc, respectively.

Similarly, from 2016 to 2019, volume and value of E-banking transactions have substantially increased by 112pc and 152pc respectively on account of 71pc increase in E-banking users.

`Credit card related transactions increased from 18 million to 39m, showing an increase of 118pc over a span of four years,` said the SBP.

Accordingly, the increase in complaints over the same period can be witnessed as concentrated in ATM and debit card, Account maintenance, Ebanking and credit cards, it added.

In terms of addressing the complaints, the resolution rate over the period 2016-2019 remained above 97pc at each year`s end.

Delays were observed in sending acknowledgments, interim and final responses, said the SBP. The banks being the first forum of redresses have been handling 97pc and above of the total complaints of the industry while less than 3pc of complaints were escalated at higher levels including the SBP, Banking Mohtasib and Pakistan Citizen Portal established by the Prime Minister Delivery Unit, the review added.