Question : LOAN RECOVERY AGENTS

(a) whether loan recovery agents of the Public and private sector banks and other financial institutions have been harassing their customers with regard to recovery of loans over a period of time despite Reserve Bank of India (RBI)/ Supreme Court guidelines;

(b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years and the current year, bank-wise along with the action taken by the Government in this regard;

(c) whether the Government/RBI has issued any guidelines for appointment of recovery agents;

(d) if so, the details thereof along with the mechanism to enforce these guidelines; and

(e) the corrective steps taken/being taken by the Government/RBI to protect the interest of the customers?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SMT. NIRMALA SITHARAMAN)

(a) & (b): Banks, as principals, are responsible for the actions of their agents. Hence, banks have been advised to ensure that their agents engaged for recovery of their dues should strictly adhere to the guidelines and instructions issued by RBI, including the BCSBI Code, while engaged in the process of recovery of dues.

The details of complaints regarding loan recovery agents received against the Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) by the Offices of the Banking Ombudsman during the last three years and the current year are as under:

 
 Bank Group	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14 Nationalised banks	58	58	41	28 SBI Group	62	87	56	40 Public Sector Banks	120	145	97	68 Private Sector Banks	916	215	188	164 Foreign Banks	658	83	45	38 Other Banks (RRBs, LABs)	12	8	21	25 Total	1706	451	351	295