Customer care or hotline services are not mandatory for commercial banks in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan has said.
He made the remarks while responding to a query from Jago News about customers facing long delays in reaching the customer care services of different banks.
“Setting up a call centre is not mandatory for banks or financial institutions. If a bank decides not to operate a call centre, the Bangladesh Bank has nothing to say about it,” the spokesperson said.
He said customers could submit complaints to banks in writing and the institutions would try to resolve them promptly. Call centres, he added, were introduced mainly to provide faster customer service.
The spokesperson said operating a call centre was expensive, which was why some banks chose not to offer the service.
“The Bangladesh Bank cannot compel them to do so. It is an additional service. If a bank chooses not to offer it, the central bank has nothing to say because it is part of the bank’s business strategy,” he said.
He added that customers generally preferred banks with call centre services because they could report problems directly by phone.
The spokesperson said the central bank could ask banks to improve customer care services if customers had to wait 10 to 15 minutes or longer to speak to an operator.
“We can ask them to reduce waiting times so that customers receive services more quickly. But there is little scope to issue any formal written directive in this regard,” he added.
