On 6th August 2020 RBI has introduced an online dispute resolution (ODR) system. It is a customer-friendly and technology-driven system that is used for resolving customer disputes and grievances related to digital payments. It uses “zero or minimal manual intervention”.
The Payment System Operators (PSOs) such as banks and non-banks and their participants are advised to place systems for ODR by the Central Bank. The Reserve Bank of India stated that the authorized PSOs shall implement an ODR system for disputes and grievances related to unsuccessful transactions in their respective payment systems by January 1, 2021
The Central Government said that the participating members shall be provided access to such a system by the PSO i.e., Payment System Participants (PSPs). Any entity that is implementing a payment system in the country shall position the ODR system at the starting of the services.
Structure of the ODR system:
1) Each PSO shall have an ODR system for settling disputes and grievances arising out of unsuccessful transactions and provide the participating PSPs an access to the system
2) The PSO and its PSPs shall offer the customers access for lodging the disputes and grievances relating to failed transactions, regardless of such transactions being on-us or off-us in nature.
Lodging and tracking of disputes and grievances
1) Customers shall be provided one or more channels – paper-based or web-based complaint form, mobile application, IVR, call center, SMS, through branches or offices – for lodging disputes and grievances.
2) This facility shall be provided by the PSO as well as by the PSP (the issuer institutions with whom the customer has a relationship) with a mechanism to link or access the ODR system that is put in place by the PSO.
3) Additionally, in case of systems like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), third party app providers (TPAPs) shall also offer customers a facility to lodge disputes and grievances through the same mobile app which is used for making payments, it shall be integrated with the ODR system.
4) The procedure of lodging the dispute or grievance is simple and it requires only necessary minimum details. The ODR system should be able to fetch full details automatically based on the information provided by the customer. The aspect of data confidentiality shall specifically be taken care of while designing such factors.
5) A unique reference number shall be allocated by the ODR system when a customer has lodged the dispute or grievance. This facility is given to the customers for tracking the status of the dispute or grievance using this reference number.
