RBI lifts ban on Bank of Baroda onboarding customers in its mobile app

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reviewed its 10 October 2023 decision to suspend onboarding of customers by Bank of Baroda’s mobile application `BoB World’ and has now lifted the restriction, allowing the bank to do business as usual.

RBI had imposed the ban on BoB World following disruption in service and instances of unauthorised linking of mobile numbers to bank accounts of customers to show growth in registrations.

RBI in its review noted the remedial measures taken by the bank.

Reports also suggest that following the RBI action, BoB had suspended several employees for alleged tampering of customer accounts to boost number of registrations.

Bank of Baroda also clarified that it has taken corrective measures to address RBI concerns. In fact, the bank has gone to the extent of terminating the services of its chief digital officer Akhil Handa.

Bank of Baroda had, in March 2022, asked its officials from the Bhopal zone to onboard at least 150 of the bank’s existing customers on its new mobile app, ‘BoB World.’

Reports say that in July last year, some officials of the bank linked customer accounts to unrelated mobile numbers in order to show an increase in onboarding targets.

Some employees of BoB in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand have also reportedly used the same tactics to show that the target has been reached. 

Lifting of the ban on onboarding customers on BoB World is a huge relief for the state-owned lender as the mobile app is linked to 43 per cent of BoB’s time deposits and 75 per cent of its retail loans.