ICICI Bank iMobile app glitch: 17K credit cards blocked; what happened, what should customers do now?

ICICI Bank reported a glitch related to its digital banking application, iMobile Pay, where details of around 17,000 credit cards were erroneously mapped to wrong users. The affected credit cards have been blocked, the lender said in a statement.

The issue was reported on April 25, after some of the bank customers were able to see details of other credit card users in their iMobile Pay app.

ICICI Bank, in a statement issued after the glitch was pointed out, said the issue has been resolved and affected only 0.1% of the overall credit cards issued by the bank. No misuse of the card details were reported, a spokesperson of the private lender said.

ICICI Bank, which is the country’s second largest private lender, also addressed customers’ concerns by promising to compensate them in case of any financial loss due to the glitch.

What ICICI Bank said

"It has come to our notice that about 17,000 new credit cards, which were issued in the past few days were erroneously mapped in our digital channels to the wrong users," a bank spokesperson said in a statement.

The cards whose details were compromised have been blocked, and the affected customers will be issued fresh cards, the spokesperson underlined, according to news agency PTI.

"No instance of misuse of a card from this set has been reported to us. However, we assure that the bank will appropriately compensate a customer in case of any financial loss," the bank said in a statement.

What ICICI Bank customers should do now

According to experts, chances of transactions having gone through are rare because any Indian online website will ask for the one-time password to be sent to the newly acquired customer's mobile phone.

However, ICICI Bank customers are still advised by experts to check their transactions and bank statements over the past couple of days. If any suspicious transaction is found, the bank customer care team should be immediately informed.

Bank customers whose credit cards have been blocked following the glitch should approach their nearest branch and request for a replacement card.

The glitch was reported by ICICI Bank at a time when the regulator has been acting sternly against players for any lapses. The Paytm Payments Bank has been, since March 15, barred from accepting deposits or top-ups due to “non-compliance of norms”. This week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding customers digitally due to “serious deficiencies and non-compliances”.