The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken a significant step, directing the public sector Bank of Baroda to cease the addition of new customers on its mobile app, ‘BoB World’.
This move comes in response to concerns raised by the RBI regarding the onboarding process for customers on the application.
The RBI has underlined the importance of ensuring that existing ‘BoB World’ customers do not encounter any disruptions due to this suspension.
RBI’s Official Statement
In an official statement, the RBI explained, “The Reserve Bank of India, exercising its authority under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, has instructed Bank of Baroda to halt the process of adding new customers to the ‘BoB World’ mobile app, effective immediately.
The statement clarifies that any new customer additions will be permitted only after the bank has rectified the identified deficiencies and strengthened the related processes to the satisfaction of the RBI.”
Previous Allegations of Account Tampering
This action follows earlier reports in July 2023, suggesting that ‘BoB World’ was involved in tampering with customer accounts.
These reports alleged that the bank had linked contact details of various individuals to artificially increase the number of mobile app registrations.
In response, the bank firmly denied any use of unauthenticated or non-customer mobile numbers for app registrations.
The bank also clarified that a single mobile number belonging to a customer cannot be linked to multiple accounts within the bank’s mobile application, ‘BoB World’.
The RBI’s decision to intervene underscores the importance of maintaining transparency, security, and adherence to regulations in the digital banking landscape.
Bank of Baroda is now tasked with resolving the identified issues to ensure the safe and compliant onboarding of new customers on its mobile app.
