This page is informational and is not legal advice. It describes rules, orders and rulings as published or reported on the dates shown; read the primary text before relying on any of it.
Pigmity's guides describe how doorstep collection fails. This page is about the remedy, and the first thing to establish is not what went wrong but what kind of institution holds your money. A co-operative bank and a credit society can run the same daily collection, issue the same passbook and send the same agent, and still sit under different grievance systems. One has a free, statutory ombudsman. The other does not.
The one test that decides the forum
| If your institution is | The grievance forum is | What it can do |
|---|---|---|
| A state, central or scheduled urban co-operative bank | RBI Ombudsman, under RB-IOS, 2026 | Free redress, and an Award including compensation within the Scheme's limits |
| A non-scheduled urban co-operative bank with deposits of ₹50 crore and above | RBI Ombudsman, under RB-IOS, 2026 | The same |
| A smaller non-scheduled urban co-operative bank | Not the RBI Ombudsman | RBI's consumer education and protection cells handle what falls outside the Scheme |
| A credit co-operative society, patpedhi or Souharda society | The Registrar of Co-operative Societies for that state | Registrar's grievance and inspection powers under the state co-operative law |
| A multi-state co-operative society | Central Registrar, and the Co-operative Ombudsman created by the 2023 amendment | A three-month grievance timeline under that Act |
| A Nidhi company | Not a banking forum | Nidhi companies are regulated as companies, not as banks |
If you cannot say with confidence which row you are in, our checklist on telling a bank from a society is the place to start. Ask for the banking licence, not the signboard.
Step 1: complain to the institution, in writing
Every route below assumes you did this first, and the RBI scheme says so explicitly: a complaint is not maintainable where the complainant has not first approached the institution, with proof. Put it in writing, state the dates and amounts, and keep the acknowledgement or complaint number. That number is the single document each later forum asks for.
Step 2: the RBI Ombudsman, if your institution is covered
The Reserve Bank replaced its 2021 scheme with the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026, which in RBI's words "comes into force with effect from July 1, 2026". Complaints already filed under the old scheme continue to be governed by it.
What the scheme covers, in its own list, is banks: all commercial banks, regional rural banks, state co-operative banks, central co-operative banks, scheduled primary urban co-operative banks, and non-scheduled primary urban co-operative banks with deposit size of ₹50 crore and above as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year. The threshold is the part most summaries drop, and it matters here more than in most places: the depositor at the smallest institution has the least protection, and is least likely to know it.
The mechanics, as RBI states them:
- Cost. There is no fee. RBI says complainants need not approach any third-party agency or pay a fee, which is worth knowing because agencies offering to file for you exist.
- When. After 30 days without a reply from the institution, or sooner if you have a reply and are dissatisfied with it.
- Deadline. Within 90 days of that point, or of the last communication from the institution, whichever is later.
- How. Online through RBI's complaint portal at cms.rbi.org.in, by email to the Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre, or on paper to that centre in Chandigarh. A toll-free contact centre on 14448 helps with the procedure and with status, but cannot register the complaint itself.
- What it can award. There is no limit on the amount in dispute. For consequential loss, the Ombudsman may award compensation up to ₹30 lakh, and up to ₹3 lakh for loss of time, expense and harassment.
Some things the Ombudsman will not hear, and two of them touch this subject directly: a grievance already before a court or tribunal, and a dispute about the employment relationship between an institution and its people. Whether a collection agent is an employee is exactly such a dispute, and it is being litigated rather than resolved through this route.
Step 3: if it is a society, the Registrar
A society that has not been licensed as a bank is not an entity RBI regulates, so the ombudsman scheme cannot hear its depositors: complaints about customers of an entity outside the Scheme are not maintainable. That is not a technicality to argue around. It is the same line that decides whether your money is insured.
The route instead runs through the Registrar of Co-operative Societies in the state where the society is registered. For a society operating across state lines, the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2023 created a Co-operative Ombudsman with a three-month timeline for grievances, alongside the Central Registrar. That ombudsman handles grievances about the co-operative. It is not deposit insurance, and it is not the RBI scheme.
Step 4: when cash was taken and never credited
A missing credit is a service failure. Cash collected and never entered anywhere may be something else. The RBI directions on doorstep services put the bank's liability on the same footing as a branch transaction, which is why the institution is the right first stop even when the agent is the person who took the money. Our guide to how collections fail sets out what the record shows about that gap, and what documents make it provable: the receipt, the passbook entry, and the date each credit appeared.
A criminal complaint is a separate track from the grievance one, and the RBI scheme treats a police investigation as a different matter from a complaint before it, rather than as a bar to filing.
Step 5: when the institution itself has failed
If withdrawals have been restricted or the institution is in liquidation, the question is no longer grievance redress but deposit insurance, which pays on a statutory timetable and only for banks. That is a separate process with its own form and its own deadlines.
What we could not establish
- How many pigmy or daily-deposit complaints reach any of these forums. RBI publishes ombudsman volumes by category, not by product, and we have found no published count for this scheme.
- Whether a given urban co-operative bank meets the ₹50 crore test. Deposit size as on the last audited balance sheet is not published in one list we could read; it has to be established from the institution's own accounts.
- What a state Registrar's grievance process looks like in practice, which varies by state law and which we have not verified state by state. We say what the route is, not how long it takes.
Questions
- My agent collected cash and it never reached my account. Who do I complain to?
- Start with the institution in writing and keep the acknowledgement, because every later forum asks for it. If the institution is a co-operative bank covered by the RBI ombudsman scheme, you may take it to the RBI Ombudsman after 30 days without a reply, or sooner if you have a reply you are not satisfied with. If it is a credit society, the RBI scheme cannot hear it and the route is the Registrar of Co-operative Societies. Cash taken and not credited may also be a police matter.
- Does the RBI Ombudsman cover every co-operative bank?
- No. The scheme covers state co-operative banks, central co-operative banks, scheduled primary urban co-operative banks, and non-scheduled primary urban co-operative banks with deposit size of ₹50 crore and above as on the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year. A smaller non-scheduled urban co-operative bank sits outside it.
- Is there a fee, or a time limit?
- There is no fee. You must first complain to the institution; you can approach the RBI Ombudsman after 30 days without a reply, or earlier if you are dissatisfied with the reply you received, and within 90 days of that point.