Local banks are seeking to change how the deadline for processing official customer complaints is calculated, effectively giving them an additional working day to respond in cases where complaints are registered during the same working day.
The banking sector has proposed that the five-working-day period under the Complaints Management System (CRS) should begin on the working day following the date a complaint is registered, rather than counting the registration day itself.
The proposal follows changes to the system’s calculation mechanism after the Central Bank of Kuwait reduced the deadline for banks to respond to customer complaints from 15 days to five working days at the beginning of last May.
Banks argue that the current calculation method could affect the quality and efficiency of complaint handling, particularly in complex cases requiring detailed analysis and investigation.
Late-day complaints at the center of proposal
A key concern is that some official complaints are received late in the working day, sometimes just two hours or less before the end of official working hours.
When the registration day is counted as the first of the five working days, banks effectively have only four full working days to process such complaints. Banks say this leaves insufficient time to begin the necessary search, investigation and preparation of a comprehensive response on the same day.
The banking sector therefore proposed reinstating the calculation mechanism used in the first update of the CRS, under which the period begins on the next working day. The banks say this would align the system with the mechanism followed by the Central Bank in calculating grievance periods and ensure consistency in application.
System changes prompted review
According to the report, the first CRS update calculated the complaint period from the working day following registration. A subsequent system update instead began counting from the day the complaint was registered.
After about four months of practical application, banks reviewed the mechanism and proposed returning to the previous calculation method.
The banks’ case rests on three considerations: complaints received late in the working day can shorten the effective response period; starting the deadline on the registration day can place pressure on the quality of responses; and adopting the next-working-day calculation would ensure consistency with the regulatory mechanism.
The Central Bank had also required banks to develop periodic performance indicators to measure customer satisfaction and improve the quality of complaint handling.
Under existing Central Bank guidelines, individual customers may use the electronic complaint form if their bank does not provide a complaint form or fails to respond in writing to a complaint within the specified period.
