The Consumer Council has welcomed the establishment of a consumer complaints unit within the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

Chief Executive Officer Premila Kumar said the Council is happy that RBF is taking on a more active role now in ensuring that Fiji consumers are given service by the financial institutions in Fiji to the clients' satisfaction.

She said the consumers have been long ignored on their complaints and it encourages people to use the complaints unit once established by RBF to bring about reform in this sector.

Kumar's comment comes after the Reserve Bank Governor Sada Reddy revealed yesterday after consultations with the government it has agreed to discard the proposals to set up a Financial Services Commission and Banking Ombudsman and immediately set up a Financial Institutions Complaint Unit at the Reserve Bank and in turn each bank, credit institution, FNPF and FDB and insurance companies will have dedicated staff at each branch to receive customer complaints.