App fiasco: Bank of Baroda tells branches to retrieve consent forms

livemint.com:

Bank of Baroda (BoB) is trying to trace the paper trail behind a recent scandal where some employees allegedly created false app sign-ups using random mobile phone numbers, two officials at the state-owned lender said. The bank has asked branches to produce customer consent and registration forms for signing up on the bob World app and changing mobile numbers. Branches have been told to upload the forms on an internal portal in the next few days, while regional offices have held virtual meetings with branches to highlight the urgency of the matter, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.

Branches have also received a document on how to upload these forms on the portal. Each branch will be able to see a list of its bank accounts for which documents need to be furnished. Mint has seen a copy of the document.

Following an Al Jazeera report in July, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October barred BoB from onboarding fresh customers on the app, citing “material supervisory concerns". A BoB spokesperson said the bank has since started a comprehensive and rigorous audit related to the mobile banking onboarding process. The latest exercise, officials said, aims to find accounts where mobile numbers were added or changed, or where bob World was downloaded without following proper procedure.

“The audit is being managed and supervised by an external agency," a BoB spokesperson said. “The very purpose of the audit is to identify gaps in terms of adequacy of documents or data errors where SOPs have not been followed in some branches. The bank has already carried out substantial corrective measures and we are committed to strengthening our onboarding processes further," the spokesperson added, terming the