Some customers of India's largest private lender HDFC Bank Ltd. have been unable to access net banking services for the second straight day. On attempting to log-in or conduct transactions, customers have been faced with error messages.
Not all customers have faced such problem but many have taken to social media to complain about these error messages since Monday. On Tuesday, some continued to face difficulties in logging in, while others were seeing slower access to online platforms. The problems have continued through the day, with users taking to social media platforms like Twitter to launch their complaints.
BloombergQuint could not independently verify the complaints or ascertain the extent of the problem.
Dear @HDFCBank_Cares
I am facing issue since yesterday. Not able to login. Please update on same.
Thank you.#hdfcbankdown pic.twitter.com/w0C9QrjtIWEven if I want to open a new bank account, I can't transfer money into it because #hdfcbank is still frozen (for me). Lesson learnt. Need at least two active bank accounts.
Earlier you had problem with the upgraded version of new app. This persisted for a long time. Today, no one is able to access your app and website. This is the first working day of the month which is critical for all.
You need to really work on your technology @HDFCBank_CaresAccording to the bank's response on Twitter on Monday, the problems were occurring due to a “technical glitch”. The bank also said it's trying to restore the services shortly and the issue is its “top priority”.
On Tuesday afternoon, the bank posted another message via its social media account saying the problem was taking “longer than anticipated” to fix.
An email sent to HDFC Bank on Tuesday morning remained unanswered.
While we deeply regret the inconvenience caused, there's no cause for undue concern. (2/2)
We apologise that the resolution of the technical glitch is taking more time than anticipated. Our experts are working round the clock. While some customers are able to transact using NetBanking and MobileBanking App, a few may still be facing intermittent issues. (1/2)
This is not the first time that the lender's customers faced such issues. A year ago, the bank had launched a renewed version of its mobile banking application. But its customers struggled to log in to it. That forced the bank to pull back the new application and restore the old version.
“For a Tier 1 bank to have customers struggling to access their accounts for two days is a big deal. Technology is now core to banking, so any issues there will not only lead to a loss to the brand value, but also in revenue. We are already seeing customers complaining on social media. It is likely that we will see some defections because of these issues,” said Arup Roy, director at Gartner Research.
A banking technology specialist working for a multi-national consultancy firm explained that when a bank faces an unexpected technological issue, there is a contingency plan in place to deal with the situation. However, in this case, the plan seems to have failed, leading to customers facing these issues, the consultant said, speaking on conditions of anonymity.
HDFC Bank is the country largest private lender. It holds over Rs 9 lakh crore in deposits and is one of the largest provider of salary accounts. According to a presentation on its website, nearly 92 percent of transactions initiated by customers were through internet and mobile services. Only 4 percent of the transactions were through branch network.
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