Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. In a rare but realistic move, RBI has asked banks to invest adequately in IT infrastructure according to their business growth and volume to reduce outages. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said this in a press conference on Friday after the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India. Shaktikanta Das said, 'Whenever there is a technical interruption, the problem is not in NPCI and UPI, but there are problems of banks. There are many reasons for this, which we are dealing with.' Notably, very recently, RBI had banned adding new customers and issuing new credit cards through online and mobile banking channels, citing supervisory concerns over Kotak Mahindra Bank's technology platform. RBI has imposed these restrictions on Kotak Bank to prevent any possible long-term interruption. According to experts, disruptions can have a serious impact not only on the bank's ability to provide good customer service, but also on the financial ecosystem of digital banking and payment systems.

ICICI Bank upped spending on IT and cyber security

In a move recently, the ICICI Bank announced that it has substantially increased its spending on information technology and cyber security. The bank has increased it from 5.6% of total operating expenses in 2019 to 9.4% in the financial year 2023-24. ICICI Bank has faced several incidents of outage in the recent past. After announcing the fourth quarter results, ICICI Bank Executive Director Sandeep Batra said, "IT resilience and customer security are most important for us and it is not a budget constraint." Sandeep Batra said, 'This is a continuous effort and any bank can have interruptions and flaws. We have the ability to take quick recovery and corrective actions and we will focus on improving our capabilities.' He also said that whenever we need to spend money, which has never been a hindrance, we will remain focused.

No change in interest rates

Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not change the interest rates for the eighth consecutive time. RBI kept the interest rates unchanged at 6.5%, which means loans will not become expensive and your EMI will also not increase. RBI last raised the rates by 0.25% to 6.5% in February 2023.