ICICI Bank customers face glitches on ICICI net banking, mobile app

Customers of ICICI Bank on March 25 complained about technical glitches on the bank's internet banking platform and mobile app.

ICICI Bank customers were unable to access these platforms and many took to social media platforms to raise the issue.

Customers of ICICI Direct too complained of issues in the online, mobile platforms. ICICI Direct later tweeted today about the website being down and assured that the glitches will be fixed at the earliest. 

An ICICI Bank spokesperson didn't immediately offer a response to queries on digital outage.

"Servers are down for quite some time. Both the website and the app aren't opening for now," said an ICICI bank official who didn't want to be named.

This isn’t the first time ICICI Bank customers are facing technical glitches. Even in September 2021, there was a downtime on the website for a couple of hours.

Several customers had complained of glitches faced while doing transactions or accessing other banking facilities via internet banking.

Frequent technical glitches on internet and mobile banking platforms have created problem for Indian banks in the recent years.  In December, 2020, the RBI had imposed curbs on HDFC Bank following frequent digital outages.

The curbs were fully lifted recently. On March 11, the RBI acted on Paytm Payments bank preventing it from taking on new customers while ordering a comprehensive IT system audit.

The crackdown on Paytm Payments Bank was based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank, the RBI said.

The RBI hasn’t elaborated on the concerns but as it appears from the statement, the regulator’s discomfort is primarily to do with the IT system.

Experts said the concerns could be over data privacy, Know Your Customer (KYC), data storage, etc.

The bank will now have to appoint an IT audit firm to begin the auditing process and submit a report to the central bank. The lifting of the ban will depend on the audit outcome.

Time  and again, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned banks to invest more on their technology platforms to ensure smooth functioning.

Last year, the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said banks must invest more in building robust IT platforms to fortify public confidence in digital banking.

“More investment is required by all stakeholders for building robust IT platforms and technologies for operational purposes as well as for fortifying public confidence in digital banking, especially when the financial landscape is rapidly embracing new technologies,” Das wrote in the foreword of RBI Financial Stability Report (FSR).