RBI asks HDFC to stop issuing new credit cards

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked HDFC Bank to temporarily stop all launches of the Digital Business generating activities and sourcing of new credit card customers.

The RBI’S order dated December 2 comes ater outages in the bank’s online facilities or payment utilities occurred over the past two years, including the recent incident in the internet banking and payment system on November 21, 2020 due to a power failure in the primary data centre.

In a regulatory filing, HDFC Bank on Thursday said: “The RBI has advised the bank to temporarily stop all launches of the Digital Business generating activities — Digital 2.0 (to be launched) and other proposed business generating IT applications and sourcing of new credit card customers. In addition, the Order states that the bank’s board examines the lapses and fixes accountability.”

Furthermore, the filing said that these measures shall be considered for liting upon satisfactory compliance with the major critical observations as identified by the RBI.

“The bank over the last two years has taken several measures to fortify its IT systems and will continue to work switly to close out the balance and would continue to engage with the regulator in this regard.

“The bank has always endeavoured to provide seamless digital banking services to its customers. 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.”