s s mundra : customer service in banks - time to raise the bar! keynote address by mr s s mundra, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the annual conference of principal code compliance officers, organized by the banking codes and standards board of india, mumbai, 30 may 2017. * * * shri a. c. mahajan, chairman, banking codes and standards board of india ( bcsbi ) ; shri anand aras, ceo, bcsbi ; colleagues from the banking industry ; representatives from the media ; ladies and gentlemen! at the outset, i would like to thank bcsbi for inviting me for this annual conference of the principal code compliance officers ( pccos ) in the banks. 2. during the past 12 years of its existence, bcsbi has played a pivotal role in enhancing awareness about customer service in banks. the code of bank ’ s commitment to customers and the code of bank ’ s commitment to micro and small enterprises developed by bcsbi set out common minimum standards for customer service in banks. 3. monitoring of compliance to the codes by member banks is one of the mandates of bcsbi which is fulfilled through visits to a representative sample of branches by authorized representatives of bcsbi. bcsbi, thus, helps the banks by providing an independent review and feedback on their adherence in practice, to the self - prescribed standards. from 2013, bcsbi has been rating banks on code compliance based on the inputs from branch visits and customers feedback. this rating indicates level of implementation of important provisions of these codes at the first customer touch point in the bank. a release now of these ratings in public domain is intended to increase transparency, generate public awareness and also instill a sense of competition among the member banks for achieving a higher level of customer service. a perusal of the ratings, however, does not exhibit any significant improvement in consumer service rating of banks. only 12 of the 46 banks rated by bcsbi received ‘ high ’ rating in terms of performance while 24 were above average and 10 remained as ‘ average ’ performers. in fact, the position has marginally worsened since 2015 survey. 4. despite outlining of minimum standards for customer service through codification of banks ’ commitments to customers, we observe that the number of complaints received by the offices of banking ombudsmen continues to rise. for the first time since its inception in 1995, the number of complaints to bos exceeded one lakh last year.

amando m tetangco, jr : working on asean governance standards speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at the financial sector forum on asean corporate governance scorecard, manila, 24 september 2014. * * * good morning everyone and welcome to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas. on behalf of the other members of the fsf – the heads of sec, ic and pdic – i also welcome everyone to this forum on the asean corporate governance scorecard or what we call acgs. the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, the securities and exchange commission, the insurance commission and the philippine deposit insurance corporation are pleased that representatives from various sectors have joined us this morning to know more about the acgs. this tells us that you and the institutions you represent similarly value corporate governance. as you and i know, good corporate governance is key to ensuring sustainable long - term growth. in this context, acgs is important – it deserves our time and full attention. a joint initiative of the asean capital markets forum and the asian development bank, the acgs evaluates the top publicly listed companies in five categories, based on the following weights : 10 % for rights of the shareholders ; 10 % for role of stakeholders ; 15 % for equitable treatment of shareholders ; 25 % for disclosure and transparency ; and 40 % for responsibilities of the board. benchmarked against international best practice, the acgs provides a standard rigorous methodology that can generate comparable information crucial to investors, fund managers, the private sector, the regulators and governments. at present, the acgs counts six participating asean countries : indonesia, malaysia, singapore, thailand, vietnam and the philippines. this program is being done in parallel with other efforts to promote asean as a competitive growth region. while the acgs country reports and assessments for 2013 – 2014 said the performance of asean publicly listed companies in applying recommended corporate governance principles is commendable, continuing improvements are called for. we agree. and all of us should strive to do so in our respective institutions, industries and sectors. good governance has to be a culture not only within institutions but across our country. at this point, i will share a number of our initiatives at the bangko sentral. over the years, we at the bangko sentral have been working on strengthening governance standards in banks. among others, proposed directors of banks are subject to