'Will come back with a bang,' says HDFC Bank as RBI lifts curbs on sourcing of new credit cards

India's largest private lender HDFC Bank, in a statement to the stock exchanges today, said the Reserve Bank has relaxed the restriction placed on the bank on the sourcing of new credit cards. The bank said it'll 'come back with a bang' with regard to its credit cards business.

"As a further update to the above intimations, we wish to inform you that the RBI vide its letter dated August 17, 2021 has relaxed the restriction placed on sourcing of new credit cards. The Board of Directors of the Bank has taken note of the said RBI letter," the statement said.

After three instances of network outages, the RBI had last year prohibited the bank from selling new credit cards and launching digital initiatives. It had also asked the lender to improve its systems before the curbs were lifted.

The bank stated that restrictions on all new launches of the Digital Business generating activities planned under Digital 2.0 will continue till further review by the RBI. "We will continue to engage with RBI and ensure compliance on all parameters."

In a separate statement to the media, the bank said it'll roll out strategies for its credit card business in the coming time. "As stated earlier, all the preparations and strategies that we have put in place to 'come back with a bang' on credit cards will be rolled out in the coming time," HDFC Bank said.

The bank has been plagued with digital outages for some time and the central bank had also ordered a third-party audit of its IT system. HDFC Bank MD and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan, during the bank's annual report for FY21, had apologised to the bank's stakeholders and customers for the repeated tech outages. He added that in the last 28 months, the bank has been in the spotlight "for the wrong reasons" when it comes to technology.

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