RBI asks HDFC bank to stop selling new credit cards, to halt digital launches

The Reserve Bank of India has asked the HDFC bank, a private sector lender, to stop its digital launches as well as new sourcing of credit card customers on a temporary basis. The central bank has also asked the bank to stop the launch of digital business generating activities that are planned under Digital 2.0 as well as other proposed business generating IT applications.

The order from RBI has come after several customers faced incidents of outages in HDFC’s mobile banking, internet banking, and payment utilities over the past 2 years. The complaints also include the recent outages on November 21, 2020, in the bank’s payment system and internet banking because of a power failure in the primary data centre. The bank has also advised the board of HDFC to examine the lapses and fix accountability.

Customer complaints against HDFC Bank:

The customers on November 21 had complained that the payment stack in their HDFC bank’s account has been inoperative. As per the bank, it was due to an unexpected outage at one of the data centres.

Earlier on December 3, 2019, similar complaints were filed by the customers where they were unable to pay their loan EMIs or settle their credit card bills on time. The bank had then blamed it on the technical glitch and informed that it is being worked on by the experts.

It was found later that the outage had taken place because of the bank’s underestimated growth in payment volumes and the disruption in services was more of a capacity issue.

However, the rumors of a cyber-attack were dismissed by HDFC and the same was also informed to the bank regulator.

HDFC Banks’ response to the complaints:

The bank in an official statement on December 3, 2020, informed that it has already taken several measures over the last two years to fortify its IT systems. The bank further added that it will continue to work swiftly for closing out the balance and will continue to engage with the Reserve Bank of India in this regard.

Our MD's Communication to customers on the RBI order. pic.twitter.com/0z9jomsYqz

— HDFC Bank (@HDFC_Bank) December 3, 2020

pic.twitter.com/TsQRxcIzw9

— HDFC Bank (@HDFC_Bank) December 3, 2020

The statement added that it has been taking concrete steps to solve the recent outages that took place on digital banking channels. It also assured the customers that current supervisory actions will have no impact on its digital banking channels, existing credit cards, and existing operations.