India's Bank of Baroda says cenbank lifts ban on adding customers on mobile app

People sit outside Bank of Baroda's branch in Kolkata · Reuters

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BENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) -India's Bank of Baroda said on Wednesday the central bank has lifted restrictions on onboarding customers through its mobile application.

The Reserve Bank of India had stopped Bank of Baroda from adding customers to its mobile app in October, citing "certain material supervisory concerns," without giving any details about the issues.

The bank would be allowed to resume onboarding customers through its bob World app after rectifying certain deficiencies, the central bank had said in October.

The RBI's move came after news agency Al Jazeera reported, in July 2023, citing whistleblowers, that Bank of Baroda had linked mobile numbers of strangers to boost registrations on its application.

Reuters has not independently verified these claims, which the bank had denied at the time.

With mobile banking gaining popularity, the central bank has been pushing lenders to adopt efficient customer service standards and upgrade their technology to prevent systemic risks.

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru and Siddhi Nayak in Mumbai; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)