RBI Ends Nearly Year-Long Freeze on Kotak Mahindra Bank’s New Customer Onboarding

Kotak Mahindra Bank Shares: After a year-long wait, the private bank finally got RBI's nod to start onboarding new customers again. The central bank lifted all the restrictions imposed on Kotak after "non-compliances" were observed in IT inventory management, data security and other segments of the bank.

The Reserve Bank also permitted the private sector lender to issue fresh credit cards.

The RBI in April 2024 had directed the lender to cease and desist from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels, and issuing fresh credit cards.

“We welcome the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to lift the business restrictions on Kotak Mahindra Bank. This decision follows the Bank's successful implementation of remedial measures and compliance validation through an external audit. We will continue to work closely with the RBI to shortly resume digital onboarding of new customers and issuing fresh credit cards," the private bank said.

Subsequently, the bank initiated remedial measures to address the supervisory concerns and submitted compliances to the Reserve Bank, the central bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The bank also commissioned an external audit, with prior approval of RBI, to validate compliance.

"Now, having satisfied itself based on the submissions, and remedial measures undertaken by the bank, the Reserve Bank, has decided to lift the afore-mentioned restrictions placed on Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited," the RBI said.

While announcing the supervisory action against Kotak Mahindra Bank under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act in April last year, the RBI had said the actions were necessitated based on significant concerns arising out of it’s IT examination of the bank for the years 2022 and 2023 and the continued failure on part of the bank to address these concerns in a comprehensive and timely manner.

Serious deficiencies and non-compliances were observed in the areas of IT inventory management, patch and change management, user access management, vendor risk management, data security and data leak prevention strategy, business continuity and disaster recovery rigour and drill, the RBI had said.

(With inputs from PTI)