BoB World App Case: Akhil Handa's Contract Was Terminated By Bank, Says CEO

In the BoB World app case, the bank took a decision and sent an exchange filing mentioning that Handa's exit was bank-induced cessation of services, Chand told reporters in a post-results media call.

"The bank-induced is termination of contract for the matter and this is a larger action that we initiated both at the branch and corporate office level," he said.

Since the customer onboarding on BoB World app has been stopped by the Reserve Bank of India, the lender is strengthening internal vigilance and surveillance mechanisms, Chand said.

"There are due processes to be followed and actions have been taken," he said. "The issue with regard to regulatory action is for customer onboarding processes and not with regard to the platform," he told reporters.

However, rejecting claims of termination, Akhil Handa, speaking exclusively to BQ Prime, said that he resigned from his position in early August.

"My exit was a personal decision that I conveyed to the top management in August and since then, I had been serving my notice period. The narrative of termination seems a deflection of operational lapses at the branch level issues," Handa told BQ Prime.

He also said that the BoB World app has no issues and the onboarding of customers is a pure operational matter.

"The application onboarding process is controlled by operations department methodology. The mobile number seeing is a pure branch level process governed by Maker and Checker process," Handa told BQ Prime.

On Nov. 1, the public sector lender said that Handa would cease to be the head of digital lending business and his role would be taken over by K Sheetal Venkateshmurthy, head of digital channels and operation at Bank of Baroda.

Since an internal candidate has been handed over the responsibilities, the bank is currently not looking out for a new chief digital officer, Chand said.

In a LinkedIn post as well, Handa announced the end of his tenure at Bank of Baroda.

"As I embark on a new journey, today 31.10.23 marks the end of my journey at Bank of Baroda, and I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to my incredible colleagues for the incredible support and camaraderie during my time here," he said in the post.

In the BoB World app case, the bank took a decision and sent an exchange filing mentioning that Handa's exit was bank-induced cessation of services, Chand told reporters in a post-results media call.

"The bank-induced is termination of contract for the matter and this is a larger action that we initiated both at the branch and corporate office level," he said.

Since the customer onboarding on BoB World app has been stopped by the Reserve Bank of India, the lender is strengthening internal vigilance and surveillance mechanisms, Chand said.

"There are due processes to be followed and actions have been taken," he said. "The issue with regard to regulatory action is for customer onboarding processes and not with regard to the platform," he told reporters.

However, rejecting claims of termination, Akhil Handa, speaking exclusively to BQ Prime, said that he resigned from his position in early August.

"My exit was a personal decision that I conveyed to the top management in August and since then, I had been serving my notice period. The narrative of termination seems a deflection of operational lapses at the branch level issues," Handa told BQ Prime.

He also said that the BoB World app has no issues and the onboarding of customers is a pure operational matter.

"The application onboarding process is controlled by operations department methodology. The mobile number seeing is a pure branch level process governed by Maker and Checker process," Handa told BQ Prime.

On Nov. 1, the public sector lender said that Handa would cease to be the head of digital lending business and his role would be taken over by K Sheetal Venkateshmurthy, head of digital channels and operation at Bank of Baroda.

Since an internal candidate has been handed over the responsibilities, the bank is currently not looking out for a new chief digital officer, Chand said.

In a LinkedIn post as well, Handa announced the end of his tenure at Bank of Baroda.

"As I embark on a new journey, today 31.10.23 marks the end of my journey at Bank of Baroda, and I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to my incredible colleagues for the incredible support and camaraderie during my time here," he said in the post.

On Oct. 10, the RBI barred the lender from onboarding new customers onto the BoB World app, until further notice.

The action was taken after it was alleged that bank employees were fraudulently linking mobile numbers with accounts of customers in order to boost the active user base of the app.

As reported by BQ Prime, the bank carried out its own investigation and suspended at least nine officers. Majority of the action was taken at branches in Gujarat.

"We have taken action on a large set of people on the field," Chand said in the media call.