Breather For Bank Of Baroda As RBI Allows Onboarding Of Customers Via Bob World App

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Bank of Baroda, which was barred from onboarding customers through its mobile banking application.

Bank of Baroda in an exchange filing said that the RBI in a letter dated May 8, conveyed the decision to lift curbs on ‘Bob World’ with immediate effect.

In October last year, the RBI asked the bank to suspend onboarding customers on its Bob World app.

Back then, the central bank said, “The Reserve Bank of India has, in exercise of its power, under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, directed Bank of Baroda to suspend, with immediate effect, any further onboarding of their customers onto the ‘bob World’ mobile application. This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the manner of onboarding of their customers onto this mobile application.”

Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda is now permitted to onboard customers through its Bob World app in compliance with relevant guidelines and regulations. 

“The Bank will now resume onboarding new customers in the Bob World application. The Bank remains committed to ensuring adherence and compliance of regulatory guidelines. We request you to take note of the above under Regulation 30 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015 and upload the information on your website,” it said in the filing.

In July last year, reports surfaced that Bank of Baroda officials had linked bank accounts to unrelated mobile numbers to meet onboarding targets. 

It was reported that bank employees from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand adopted similar tactics to meet the targets, as they faced challenges in persuading people to sign up for the app. The officers reportedly faced monitoring from their regional office and were reprimanded for poor performance.

However, the bank denied the reports, stating that claims of using unauthenticated or non-customer mobile numbers to boost app registrations were factually incorrect.

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