RBI Lifts Curbs On Bank Of Baroda's BoB World App

The Reserve Bank of India has lifted the restrictions on Bank of Baroda's BoB World mobile app with immediate effect, according to an exchange filing on Wednesday.

In a letter dated May 8, the regulator conveyed to the bank its decision. With this, the bank will resume onboarding customers through the mobile app, based on the guidelines.

"The Bank will now resume onboarding new customers in the BoB World application. The Bank remains committed to ensuring adherence to and compliance with regulatory guidelines," Bank of Baroda said in its exchange filing.

The development comes after the RBI barred the bank in October from onboarding new customers on the BoB World App after it found material supervisory concerns.

The restrictions were imposed after Al Jazeera, in July, in an expose alleged that Bank of Baroda employees were inflating registration numbers on the BoB World app by fraudulently linking phone numbers to some accounts. The following day, however, the lender denied that its officials were engaged in such activities.

NDTV Profit had previously reported that the BoB World app mess was a tale of a leaky app with poor security, employees and third-party workers gaming the system—all to earn incentives.

As a result of this fiasco, at least nine employees of the bank were suspended and others were investigated. The bank's Chief Digital Officer, Akhil Handa, also exited the company.

In a post-Q2 earnings call, the bank's CEO, Debadatta Chand, said that Handa's exit was a termination of services. It was part of a series of administrative actions taken by the bank in the BoB World app case as it found irregularities, he said.