RBI Lifts Onboarding Ban for Bank of Baroda World App

Bank of Baroda (BoB) received good news as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted the ban on onboarding new customers onto its ‘bob World’ mobile banking application. The restriction, imposed last October due to supervisory concerns, has now been removed, allowing BoB to resume onboarding customers through the bob World app.

As of the September 2023 quarter (before the RBI ban), the daily transactions, both financials and non-financials, on bob World were 7.95 million, which reduced to 7.19 million as of December 2023.

Following RBI’s directive last October, BoB was instructed to halt the onboarding of customers onto the bob World app immediately. This decision came in response to concerns over the manner in which customers were being onboarded onto the platform. Reports emerged suggesting that some employees, particularly from the bank’s Bhopal zonal office, were engaging in fraudulent activities by linking bank accounts to different mobile numbers and registering them on the mobile app to boost registration numbers.

Despite these setbacks, BoB had launched its mobile banking app in September 2021, aiming to provide convenient banking solutions to its customers. However, the ban imposed by RBI temporarily affected the app’s usage, with daily transactions witnessing a slight decline from 7.95 million in September 2023 to 7.19 million by December 2023.

The recent lift on the ban brings relief to BoB, allowing it to onboard new customers through the bob World app while adhering to applicable guidelines and regulations. This development underscores BoB’s commitment to providing efficient and secure digital banking services to its customers.

The RBI’s action on BoB follows its recent directive to Kotak Mahindra Bank, where the regulator instructed the private bank to cease onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels due to serious deficiencies and non-compliance in IT risk management and information security governance.

Overall, the RBI’s proactive measures aim to uphold the integrity and security of India’s banking sector, ensuring that customers’ interests are safeguarded while promoting transparency and compliance across financial institutions.