RBI orders external audit of HDFC Bank's IT infra

THE MOVE COMES AFTER REPEATED SERVICE OUTAGES OVER PAST TWO YEARS

NEW DELHI: HDFC Bank on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed an external IT firm for carrying out a special audit of its IT infrastructure in the aftermath of repeated service outages at the country's largest private sector lender over the past two years.

"RBI has appointed an external professional IT firm for carrying out a special audit of the entire IT infrastructure of the bank under Section 30 (1-B) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949..., at the cost of the Bank under Section 30 (1-C) of the Act. The bank shall accordingly extend its cooperation to the external professional IT firm so appointed by RBI for conducting the special IT audit as above,"

HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Last month, HDFC Bank had submitted a detailed plan of action to the RBI to address repeated service disruption issues due to outage, saying it was hopeful of improving its technology platform in three months.

Progress is being made on the plan of action provided to the RBI and the bank has taken this positively as it will raise the standard, according to a senior official of HDFC Bank.

The action plan will take 10-12 weeks for implementation, and further time-frame will depend on the RBI's inspection. Based on the satisfaction level, the regulator will lift the ban, the official said at an analysts' meet.

In December, the RBI temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the lender over the last two years.

"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,” HDFC Bank said in an regulatory filing.