The ombudsman is responsible for resolving disputes between banks and their customers.

"We recently won the trade and industry award  for recognising consumer champions and our processes and track record are in line with the best ombud-schemes in the world," said Melville. "We think banks should be flying our flag, making more people aware of out existence."

The number of complaints sent to his office rose 16% last year, but Melville attributed the increase mainly to the ombudsman "going out and finding them and not because banks were increasing awareness of my office."

However, the introduction of a new Code of Banking Practice later this year will compel banks to do more, making it mandatory for them to advertise the ombudsman services as well as their own dispute resolution structures.

Despite the increase in cases received by the ombudsman, Melville said they were settled in line with, or exceeding international standards.

The average case is settled within 83 days, with nearly half of all cases finalised within two months.

There is not a single case on the ombudsman's books that is over a year old, according to the annual report.

For the first time, the banking ombudsman announced the number of complaints per bank.

Absa had the highest number of files, 704, opened against it last year followed by Standard Bank with 614, Nedbank with 495 and First National Bank with 358. The other smaller banks had a total of 151 cases.

However, this did not mean that Absa offered the worst services.

Melville said it was natural the larger banks would process the higher number of complaints. Absa is SA's biggest retail bank with more than 6 million customers.

Absa spokesperson Errol Smith said: " if you look at the bigger picture, 704 complaints from more than 6 million customers is not so bad. But even that's too many. We have radical initiatives underway to improve customer service."

Smith said Absa had "gone out of it's way" to promote the ombudsman. "When internal processes are unsuccessful at satisfying customer complaints, they are directed to the ombudsman for adjudication."

FNB was the only banks that failed to implement one of the ombudsman's recommendations.

The ombudsman found that the FNB financial adviser had given customers poor investment advice and instead of reimbursing them with the full amount as recommended by the ombudsman, it has only paid a percentage of the investors' losses.

With the introduction of the financial sector charter, Melville said, banks would need to "adapt their thinking and attitude to accommodate aggressive educational campaigns."

An estimates 13-million South Africans do not banks, but are expected to enter the market.

"Making new entrants to the banking market comfortable is imperative. Current levels of trust are low and we can help the banks improve that position," said Melville.

he said the ombudsman was looking at structures to avoid complaints coming to his office, or bringing the number down.

Melville said banks should beef up their own complaint-handling system and introduce their own independent adjudicators, The ombudsman would then review decisions reached in resolving disputes.