RBI removes restrictions on BoB app, allows new customer enrollment

Bank will now on-board customers through mobile app

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted the curbs on BoB World — the mobile application (app) of Bank of Baroda — with immediate effect, the bank said in a notification to the exchanges. As a result, the bank will be able to onboard customers through the mobile app.

“We wish to inform that the RBI, via its letter dated May 8, 2024, conveyed to the bank its decision to lift the aforementioned restrictions on BoB World with immediate effect. As such, the bank is free to onboard customers through the BoB World application in accordance with the applicable guidelines and extant laws/regulations,” the exchange filing said.

 

BoB said that the bank will now resume onboarding new customers in the BoB World app.

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“The bank remains committed to ensuring adherence and compliance with regulatory guidelines,” the lender said.

In October last year, the RBI directed the lender not to onboard customers through this mobile app due to certain supervisory concerns regarding the manner of onboarding customers onto this mobile app.

The move likely impacted the bank’s incremental retail business sourced through the digital platform. About 98 per cent of savings accounts and 91 per cent of current accounts are sourced digitally in the first quarter of 2023-24. About 43 per cent of time deposits and 74 per cent of retail advances are sourced through the BoB World app, according to analysts.

Following the restrictions, the bank scaled up other channels for customer acquisition.

“…BoB World is only one of the channels; we have significantly scaled up the other channels for acquiring customers. The other channels can be multiple in terms of tab banking, branch banking,” the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Debadatta Chand told analysts after the third-quarter results while adding that the bank expected the curbs to be revoked at the earliest.