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ustomer complaints in the banking industry are higher than in any other industry, with most issues relating to the safety of credit cards, according to the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI).

Of the 1,030 reports received by the foundation last year, 176 were about banks. The number of complaints on banks has fluctuated in recent years, from 115 in 2013, 192 in 2013, 210 in 2014 to 176 in 2015.

'€œThe number doesn'€™t necessarily mean that one institution is bad, it could also be a reflection of the complaining habits of one'€™s customers. However, we need to take note of the still unsafe credit card system, given the high number of overcharges and unauthorized auto debits,'€ said Sularsi, YLKI'€™s complaints and legal division head.

Of the 176 banking industry complaints, 78 were related to credit cards, followed by 49 about loan matters, 23 on housing loans (KPR), 20 on savings and the remainder split between ATMs, cash deposit machines (CDM), deposits, transfers, electronic money and telemarketing.

The banks that received the highest number of complaints were Bank Mandiri with 22 cases, Bank Mega with 20 and BCA with 19. Credit card-related complaints mostly came from customers of Bank Mega with 17 cases, BCA with eight and ANZ and Standard Chartered with eight altogether.

Other banks that made the list include BNI, BRI, BTN, CIMB Niaga, HSBC, BII or Maybank, Bukopin, PermataBank, Panin, Danamon, Citibank, BPR and several others, including Islamic banks.

Sularsi said complaints about credit cards mostly related to overcharges as a result of a third person stealing the customer'€™s credit card. Some customers also complained about banks'€™ slow response to any demand to cancel a credit card.

There were also complaints about auto debits from accounts without the card holder'€™s approval.

Responding to the issue, Mandiri corporate secretary Rohan Hafas said the number of complaints about the lender was understandable, given the size of the company. Mandiri is the biggest lender in the country with Rp 1 quadrillion (US$72 billion) in assets. It has around 15 million customers and has issued around 4 million credit cards.

'€œMoreover, the number of complaints about us received by YLKI declined from 32 in 2014 to 22 last year. This is proof of Bank Mandiri'€™s success in improving its customer service,'€ he said on Sunday.

Bank Mega managing director of cards and loans Dodit Wiweko acknowledged the problem, saying that in the first half of 2015 a number of the bank'€™s customers had complained that their credit balance was auto debited by insurance companies that were partners of Bank Mega.

At present, the bank has issued 1.9 million credit cards.

'€œWe warned our partners not to force our customers to buy their insurance products in the second half, so the number of complaints since then has declined accordingly,'€ he said in a phone conversation with The Jakarta Post.

Funds being extracted from lost cards, meanwhile, could partly be blamed on the long process before a bank can cancel a card, according to Sularsi. '€œThe gap between a card being reported as missing and the cancellation process can create a window of time in which the card can be used illegally.'€

Dodit said the verification process after reports of suspicious transactions took a long time as the bank needed to ensure that it didn'€™t cancel cards without good reason. '€œIt is a dilemma for us as we have to balance risk and service management.'€

Previously, to reduce credit card misuse, Bank Indonesia (BI) has obliged all banks to start using six-digit PIN numbers instead of signatures to validate credit card purchases. BI had previously mandated banks in the country to implement the six-digit PIN system by 2015. However, BI postponed the implementation deadline to June 30, 2020, as many banks had not fully replaced old credit cards and electronic data capture (EDC) machines, BI said.

'€œThere will be no more delays after this,'€ BI payment system policy director Farida Peranginangin told the Post on Sunday. (rbk)