Bank Of Baroda Suspends Errant Employees In Mobile App Case

Bank of Baroda has placed some of its branch-level employees on leave in the Bob World mobile app case, according to two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Majority of the action is centered around branches in Gujarat, the people quoted above said on the condition of anonymity. This is after the Bank of Baroda conducted an internal enquiry into allegations that some of its employees were fraudulently linking mobile numbers with accounts of customers to boost the active user base of the app. The phone numbers were not those of the customers and were used to bypass the log.

According to the first person quoted above, the internal investigation sought to find out the discrepancies in the customer on-boarding process and see if employees were breaching any rules. This week, multiple branch employees have received notices of termination of administrative leave, this person said.

The Reserve Bank of India on Oct. 10 barred onboarding of new customers on to the Bob World application, until further notice.

"While the bank has already carried out corrective measures to address the concerns of the RBI, we have initiated further steps to plug any remaining gaps identified and we will work closely with the RBI to address their concerns at the earliest to their satisfaction," Bank of Baroda had said after the regulator's announcement.

The bank had said that it does not expect the regulatory bar to have a material impact on the its overall business and growth plans.

In July, Al Jazeera carried a report in collaboration with The Reporters' Collective, where it cited whistleblower complaints alleging that employees were pressured to rack up customer numbers on the mobile app. According to the report, branch employees would avail a list of bank accounts where no mobile numbers were linked, they would then link their own contact numbers, or those of people they knew. They would then use these numbers to log in to the mobile app to register as a new customer onboarded on the app.

The report alleged that the Baroda branches of BoB showed the maximum number of such fraudulent activities.

(Updates an earlier version to clarify that errant employees have been suspended)