RBI Lifts All Restrictions on HDFC Bank's New Digital Launches; Know Details

Private lender HDFC Bank on Saturday said that the Reserve Bank of India has lifted all the restriction on the business generating activities, a year after the regulator had imposed these sanctions. The bank added that they have carved medium and long-term goals which they plan to unveil in due course.

“We would like to inform one and all that the Reserve Bank of India has lifted the restriction on the business generating activities planned under the Bank’s Digital 2.0 programme,” HDFC Bank said in a stock exchange filing.

In September 2021, RBI had lifted restrictions on HDFC Bank on issuing new credit cards.

In December 2020, the RBI had barred HDFC Bank from launching any new digital products or services and issuing new credit cards till the lender resolved recurring tech issues.

The bank has in the last six months laid out plans to rollout multiple digital products in the next 15-24 months. In the short run, it is focusing on critical services like payments, cards and customer experience. Toward the end of the year 2021, the bank upgraded its IT platforms. On Friday, HDFC Bank shares closed marginally higher at Rs 1,396 apiece on NSE.

HDFC Bank said it is fully committed to ensuring continued adherence to the highest standards of compliance with RBI recommendations. “We have utilised this time to draw up short, medium, and long-term plans to meet the evolving digital requirements of our customers and we will roll out these initiatives in the days to come. We are happy that we will once again be able to offer our customers our full suite of best-in-class services and continue to serve them with dedication and humility,” it said.

The Central bank in December 2020 had asked HDFC Bank to stop all launches of its upcoming digital business-generating activities and sourcing of new credit card customers after repeated outages at its data centre which impacted operations.

In addition, the RBI had also directed the bank board to examine the lapses and fixes accountability. In August last year, RBI had partially lifted ban on HDFC Bank allowing it to resume issuing new credit cards. The private lender back then said it had issued a record credit cards after the partial lifting of curbs.

HDFC Bank has lost a lot of ground during its embargo on new credit card customers and digital launches. However, post the lifting of curbs, the private lender has doubled down on its efforts to woo new customers. Lifting of digital business-generating restrictions too would augur well for the bank over the next few months and the Bank could aggressively pursue new digital launches.