RBI bars HDFC Bank from issuing new credit cards, halts digital launches
RBI asks HDFC Bank to stop digital launches: The bank said it has taken several measures to fortify its IT systems over last 2 years and will continue to work swiftly to close out the balance.
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed restrictions on the HDFC Bank following recent outages in internet and mobile banking.
The banking regulator has also asked the private lender to halt all its digital launches under Digital 2.0 plan.
“We wish to inform you that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued an Order dated December 02, 2020 (“Order”) to HDFC Bank Limited (the “Bank”) with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking/ mobile banking/ payment utilities of the Bank over the past 2 years, including the recent outages in the Bank’s internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre,” the private sector lender infored exchanges on Thursday.
The bank said in a statement on Thursday that it has taken several measures to fortify its IT systems over the last two years and will continue to work swiftly to close out the balance. It will also continue to engage with the RBI in this regard.
“The bank has been taking conscious, concrete steps to remedy the recent outages on its digital banking channels and assures its customers that it expects the current supervisory actions will have no impact on its existing credit cards, digital banking channels and existing operations,” it said.
HDFC bank shares plunged on the stock markets after this news broke. Its shares tanked by 1% to an intraday low of 1388 from 1432 points.
Last month also, the RBI had demanded explanation from HDFC Bank as its digital services kept interrupting on November 21 causing inconvenience for its customers.