RBI suspends Bank of Baroda from adding new customers to mobile app

Lender will be allowed to add customers to 'bob World' after rectifying deficiencies, says regulator

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday directed Bank of Baroda (BoB) to stop on-boarding of new customers into its mobile banking facility – ‘bob World’ — with immediate effect.

“The action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the manner of onboarding of their customers onto this mobile application," a RBI release said.

In order to add customers, the bank will have to rectify the existing deficiencies observed and strengthen the process according to the RBI standards, the central bank said.

In a notification to the exchanges, the public-sector bank said corrective measures were being taken to address the deficiencies. “We have initiated further steps to plug any remaining gaps identified, and we will work closely with the RBI to address their concerns at the earliest to their satisfaction,” the bank said.

The RBI decision comes in the midst of the festive season when transactions through digital platforms are expected to rise.

BoB assured that existing customers would not face any disruption and would continue to have uninterrupted services on the mobile app. The regulator also said that the existing customers of the application will not face any disruption in their services on account of the RBI mandate.

“This order does not impact any of the bank’s other digital banking channels such as Net Banking, WhatsApp Banking, Debit Cards, ATMs, etc. for servicing its existing customers as well as for onboarding of new customers,” the bank said, adding that it did not expect this action to have a material impact on the bank’s overall business and growth plans.

In July, BoB denied media reports alleging tampering with accounts by the bank to boost registration on bob World. According to the reports, the bank had linked contact details of different people to increase the number of mobile application registrations.

According to the bank’s financial year 2022-23 report, it had 30 million customers on bob World with activation rising significantly to 10.27 million from 10.14 million during FY22. The transactions on the facility increased 25.66 per cent to 186.47 million from 148.39 million in FY22.

“Over the past two years, the bank has incrementally added 10 million new customers to bob World each year, amongst the highest additions in the Indian banking space,” the bank’s annual report for FY23 said.

The total number of the lender’s internet banking users stood at 9.97 million, from 8.8 million in FY22.

The bank had launched the pilot for mobile banking application in 2011 under the name of Baroda M-Connect. In 2021, it unveiled bob World, which caters to the needs of customers.