The Reserve Bank of India, the Indian central bank, has created a working group that will be focused on updating the Banking Ombudsman Scheme of 2006, which has been a prominent basis for banking codes of conduct in the past years. 

The group, headed by Suma Varma, a senior official at RBI, will base its updates and amendments on recommendations from the Damodaran Committee on improvements of customer services in banks and from the Rajya Sabha Committee on subordinate legislation.

The Damodaran Committee was created in 2010 to monitor banking services rendered to retail and small clients, including grievance redressal mechanisms and complaints resolution procedures. 

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme has undergone several revisions in the past, with the latest happening in 2009, to make it more relevant and in tune with the times. 

Local media reports say that the group will include two banking ombudsmen, representatives from the regulatory divisions of the Reserve Bank of India, the Indian Bank's Association and the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India. 

To date, there are 15 banking ombudsmen covering 29 Indian states and seven Union territories. Banking Ombudsman offices reportedly received 72,889 complaints in 2011-12, from 71,274 complaints in the previous year, the annual report by the RBI shows. 

The highest number of customer complaints in the year came from Kanpur and New Delhi, followed by Chennai and Bhopal.