Wrong ATM transactions have been a pain for the customers since a long time. The RBI had passed a directive way back in April 2009 instructing banks to compensate the customer for wrong ATM transactions. Although late in taking action, the banks have started with the rectification process.

Thus the customer is now going to be rewarded for fault from the part of the bank although the reward process took some time to reach the customer.

The RBI directive said that the customer should be compensated with Rs. 100 per day from the 12th day after the wrong transaction has taken place till the date it has been corrected.

"We recently awarded a compensation of Rs 20,000 for a wrong debit of Rs 8,000. There are other similar cases as well,'' Mr M. Sebastian, Banking Ombudsman in Hyderabad said.

The maximum chunk of complaints to banks comes in the form of ATM complaints. Banks however refrained from disclosing the actual number of ATM complaints.

"A majority of complaints we receive are on ATM transactions,'' Mr Shiv Kumar, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India, said.

Customers have also complained about their complaints taking a long time to get settled. They say that banks have a long list of pendency regarding ATM complaints.

However, R.S. Reddy, CMD Andhra Bank denied such long pending lists with the bank.

"As people are using other banks' ATMs, there are procedures to follow in establishing the authenticity of a complaint. As multiple agencies are involved, it takes time,'' he said.