Bajaj Housing Finance: IPO aspirants face glitches, express on social media

Amid the overwhelming response to the Bajaj Housing Finance IPO, technical glitches prevented some investors from applying. Frustrated investors took to social media to express their discontent with stock brokers and UPI payment platforms, citing delayed UPI mandates. To apply for IPOs through stock broking apps, investors must approve the UPI mandate on their payment app. Customers of prominent brokerages like Groww, Zerodha, and AngelOne expressed their outrage on social media platform X, lamenting the missed chance to invest in the IPO due to technical issues.

Zerodha reported an average delay of two hours in generating the mandate, attributing the issue to the sponsor banks of the IPO.

According to Mohit Mehra, VP of Primary Markets and Payments at Zerodha, "The surge in IPO applications over the past few days led to a delay in receiving UPI mandates, averaging around 2 hours after application submission. Although Zerodha submitted applications instantly to the exchange, the sponsor banks responsible for sending UPI mandates experienced a backlog, causing the delay.”

The total retail applications for the IPO exceeded 8.8 million, the highest ever for a domestic IPO. In the past, similar glitches have been witnessed for IPOs that have seen frenzied bidding. Non-bank-backed brokerages have to use the UPI payment facility for IPOs, while bank-backed brokerages have the option to apply directly through their bank. No glitches were reported for applications made using this medium.

In December 2023, market regulator Sebi halved the timeline for listing of IPOs from six days (T+6) to just three days (T+3). In other words, IPOs now list after three working days from the issue closing date.