Bajaj Finance-RBI: The Reserve Bank of India has lifted the restrictions it had imposed on the sanction and disbursal of new loans on Bajaj Finance’s ‘eCOM’ and online/digital Insta EMI card segments. On November 15, 2023, the RBI ordered Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products ‘eCOM’ and ‘Insta EMI Card’, with immediate effect.
In a regulatory filing, the non-banking financial company on Thursday said the decision comes after the company took remedial actions to address concerns raised by the regulatory authority.
It added that it would now restart sanction and disbursal of loans in the above two business segments including issuance of EMI cards.
In its November 2023 order, the RBI had cited various concerns, which led to the order that asked the NBFC temporarily suspend the issuance of existing member identification cards (EMI cards) to new customers.
“Now, we wish to inform that the RBI, vide its letter dated 2 May 2024, based on the remedial actions taken by the Company, has conveyed its decision of lifting the said restrictions on eCOM and online digital ‘Insta EMI Card’, with immediate effect. The company would now resume sanction and disbursal of loans in the above two business segments including issuance of EMI cards. The company remains committed to ensure adherence and compliance of regulatory
guidelines,” the company said.
Last week, Kotak Mahindra Bank was barred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from onboarding new customers online or issuing new credit cards.
In a press release dated April 24, 2024, the regulator stated,”…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, etc. For two consecutive years, the bank was assessed to be deficient in its IT Risk and Information Security Governance, contrary to requirements under Regulatory guidelines. During the subsequent assessments, the bank was found to be significantly non-compliant with the Corrective Action Plans issued by the Reserve Bank for the years 2022 and 2023, as the compliances submitted by the bank were found to be either inadequate, incorrect or not sustained.”
In 2020, HDFC Bank was barred by the RBI from sourcing new credit card customers, and it took the lender more than a year to meet the RBI’s requirements and have the restrictions lifted.