The Reserve Bank of India has barred HDFC Bank from adding new credit card accounts or launching fresh digital banking products until it fixes problems that caused a 12-hour outage last month.
In November, HDFC Bank’s digital payments business went dark for half a day following a power failure in its primary data center. Similar problems hit the lender in 2019 and 2018.
The central bank has taken aggressive steps to tackle the issues, calling on the bank's board to examine the lapses and fix accountability.
“We are working on war footing,” Sashi Jagdishan, managing director & CEO of HDFC Bank in a statement to customers published on the bank’s website. “We will work with experts and the regulator to fortify the identified areas for improvement.”
With nearly 15 million credit cards HDFC Bank has the country’s highest market share of about 26%.
Market observers believes it may take the bank up to three months to fix the cricital issues identified by the RBI.