The bank, which upgraded its internet banking platform on Thursday, had informed customers about a four-hour maintenance activity although customers faced transaction failures early Thursday.
Several customers took to social media to vent their frustration. While a few customers claimed that they were unable to receive payments, others said that transactions were failing while they were trying to transfer money using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Some users complained about the timing of undertaking such activity, at the start of a new fiscal year when transaction activity is especially high.
The public sector lender had earlier tweeted about the scheduled upgrade. “We will be undertaking maintenance activities between 2:10 pm to 5:40 pm on 1st April 2021. During this period, internet banking, YONO, and YONO Lite will be unavailable,” it said in a tweet.
“We request our esteemed customers to bear with us as we upgrade our internet banking platform to provide a better online banking experience.”
The bank had faced a similar system glitch in December last year when users claimed that the mobile application continued to show errors. The RBI governor had said then that the central bank was reviewing the SBI outage.
“There is a need for banks and financial institutions to invest more in their IT systems,” Governor Shaktikanta Das had said in December. “We are constantly engaged with the managements of financial institutions where there is a need to improve their IT systems.”
With a customer base of 490 million, SBI processes at least 4 lakh transactions on its digital offerings daily. About 55% of the bank’s transactions are currently being conducted through the digital channel and half of it is contributed by YONO. The bank has more than 28 million users on YONO.
