Complaints against banks have been accelerating. According to the annual report of the Office of Banking Ombudsman (OBO), the complaints received by the OBO increased 27.45% to 1.3 lakh in 2016-17 from 1.02 lakh in 2015-16 which itself represented a 21% increase over the previous year. Out of about 1.36 lakh complaints handled by the OBOs in 2016-17 (including those brought forward from the previous year), 92% were disposed within the year, against the disposal of 95% of the 1.06 lakh complaints handled in the previous year. Thus, a total of 1.25 lakh complaints were disposed in 2016-17, against 1.01 lakh in 2015-16. Failure to meet commitments, non-observance of fair practices code, Banking Codes and Standard Board of India (BCSBI) codes together accounted for 34% of the complaints received, said the report. ATM/credit and debit card complaints together represented 18.9% of the total. Pension payments accounted for 6.5%, while the remaining categories, including loans and advance and remittances, were all below 5% of the total complaints. The average cost of handling a complaint was Rs. 3,780 during 2016-17, which was lower than the average cost of Rs. 4,396 during 2015-16 on account of 27% increase in the number of complaints received during 2016-17. The OBO report observed that the rising trend of complaints, while reflecting the increasing awareness about OBOs, also underlines the need for banks to strengthen their internal grievance redressal mechanism.