The Ombudsman for Banking Services (OBS) on Friday evening unmasked the winners of their annual awards that recognise the various banks and their employees for exceptional service when resolving your complaints that reach the OBS office. The banks have been divided into two categories separated by the size of their asset market share and the volumes of complaints that reach the OBS.

Nedbank won category A which comprises the big four banks in South Africa. 

"The big four constitute 95% of complaints received by our office and Nedbank this year dealt the best with their customers complaints compared to the other top retail banks," comments Ombudsman Clive Pillay. 

"Nedbank's 'ask once' slogan has been the key to our success in helping us refocus on our clients' needs," says General Manager of Nedbank's Service Resolution Department, Herman Munsamy. "We pride ourselves on service excellence and do our best to understand the needs of our client at every touch point."

In category B, African Bank is the shining star credited with dealing with their customers complaints the best at the OBS office. 

"Only banks with 10 or more complaints that required the OBS involvement were considered for this category," said Pillay. 

There was even more good news for African Bank as their internal consumer advocate Marilyn Budow was recognised as the best staff member in dealing with the OBS. An ecstatic Budow, when asked what makes her team so exceptional said, "our focus is not on the bank, its on our clients. Every organisation should have an internal Ombudsman that looks at fairness for the consumer". 

Budow is the Consumer Advocate for African Bank and passionately challenges systems and processes in ensuring consumers are treated fairly.

The best staff member in category A is always fiercely contested each year. This year, in moving your complaints forward, Standard Bank's stalwart Les Barrett was the unprecedented champion.

"Leadership of Standard Bank is an inspiration to the way we do our job and we pride ourselves in achieving 9 in 2009 for customer service. This has resulted in Standard Bank winning other service awards," said Barrett, who has been resolving complaints for Standard Bank clients for nine years. 

"The complaint resolution centre team, in particular the offices the executive, are responsible for the success achieved at the awards," Barrett went on to comment.