RBI asks HDFC Bank to stop digital activities, sourcing new credit card customers

Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Thursday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked it temporarily stop all launches of its upcoming digital business-generating activities and sourcing of new credit card customers after an outage at its data centre which impacted operations last month.

"RBI has issued an order dated December 2, 2020, to HDFC Bank Ltd with regard to certain incidents of outages in the internet banking/mobile banking/payment utilities of the bank over the past two 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," HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing.

HDFC Bank said the RBI order "has advised the bank to temporarily stop all launches of the digital business-generating activities planned under its program Digital 2.0 and other proposed business generating IT applications and sourcing of new credit card customers".

In addition, the order has directed the bank board to examine the lapses and fixes accountability, HDFC Bank added.

The lender said the above measures shall be considered for lifting upon satisfactory compliance with the major critical observations as identified by the RBI.

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HDFC Bank said that over the last two years, it has taken several measures to fortify its IT systems and will continue to work swiftly to close out the balance and would continue to engage with the regulator 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. The bank believes that these measures will not materially impact its overall business," it added.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)