HDFC Bank is arguably one of the most respected banks in India. Its digital facilities have recently been plagued by frequent outages. (In digitals, even one outage is deemed frequent.) The customers have reasons to be dissatisfied. Its reputation is so robust that the banking regulator, RBI, would think twice before reprimanding it.
On December 2nd, RBI imposed some curbs on extension of digital services by the bank. For instance, the bank is prohibited to issue any new credit card. These curbs will be removed after the failures are rectified. The bank's Board has been advised to examine these lapses and fix accountability. A real reputational loss for HDFC Bank.
What is stated above is bad enough; on top of this, the assurance given to its customers is baffling. The bank has informed the exchanges, "The Bank has been taking conscious, concrete steps to remedy the recent outages on its digital banking channels and assures its customers that it expects the current supervisory actions will have no impact on its existing credit cards, digital banking channels and existing operations."
In brief, the bank 'expects' that its customers will not be adversely impacted. This is not an assurance. This is only a statement conveying expectation. One really expects this bank to communicate more responsibly.
This amateurish response may be because HDFC Bank is not used to being in a tight corner. This is a real test for the new MD.
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