Banks on right path, says Ombudsman.

10 March 2005 - Business Report

Cape Town - Although there was reason for concern at the number of complaints against the banks, they were moving in the right direction, the banking ombudsman, Neville Melville, told the Cape Town Press Club yesterday.

He did not know how many "trillion" banking transactions were conducted every day, though the 14 000 queries a year to his office seemed a lot, he did not know what percentage of the actual errors that represented.

Those boiled down to about 3 000 "entrenched disputes" a year, of which just over were resolved in favour of the consumer.

Although the number was increasing, banks were also resolving more complaints because it was an embarrassment for them to have to go through the ombudsman process.

Asked why people felt angry about banks in South Africa, he said he had done his research on the internet. "I put in the words "hate bank" in Google and got three million responses, which was people hate banks because banks hate people," he said, laughing. "I don't want to add any comment to that."

Part of the problem was the high fees charged, and another issue was that there was no strong consumer lobby in South Africa. "When pressures are brought to bear, changes happen. So I think everyone has a contribution as far as that's concerned."