One Mobile Number per CIF for All Schemes in IPPB

 One Mobile Number per CIF for All Schemes in IPPB

1. Presently, IPPB allows 5 CIFs to be registered with a same mobile number.
2. This provision was implemented with an assumption that for a single household in rural geography, the remaining four customers do not have a mobile number.
3. But it is being noticed that, even though people have their own mobile number, they are not providing it during account opening or not updating their existing mobile number when they get one.
4. It is also observed that customers with multiple CIFs associated with the same registered mobile number are operating the Mobile Banking application independently on different devices.
5. This is resulting in compromise of information security, misuse, fraudulent transactions taking advantage of the same registered mobile number across accounts.
6. Also with OTP based payment instruments like Virtual Debit Card, mobile-critical UPI offerings in pipeline, it is now essential to mitigate the risks caused by allowing customer transactions using same mobile number registered with multiple accounts.

Solution implemented:

1. The bank has implemented controls to tighten the usage of someone else’s mobile number during account opening, and further mobile number update through MATM.

2. In the upcoming version (v19) of micro ATM, following are the controls implemented-

3. Account opening:

a. Only one CIF can be opened with One Mobile number.
b. Account opening process will be aborted if the system detects any existing CIF with the mobile number provided by the customer.

4. Mobile Number Update:

a. Existing(Old) mobile number and New mobile number (to which the customer wants to register) will be shown on the front end.
b. Old mobile number will be populated from the database
c. End user has to fill in customer’s new mobile number to proceed.
d. OTP will be sent to the new mobile number. End user has to enter the OTP and submit.
e. After OTP submission, biometric authentication of the customer is obtained.
f. Mobile Number update process will be aborted if the system finds any existing CIF available with the new mobile number provided by the customer.

5. The above changes are applicable on all the Account scheme types including Digital Savings Account opened through Mobile Banking.\

6. Error messages and the corresponding scenarios are tabulated in the below section – Error Message & Scenarios.

7. The mobile number usage restrictions are implemented at CIF level i.e., that is a customer can still open both savings account and current account with a single registered mobile number.

Customer communication & Impact

1. In continuation to the above changes during account opening and mobile number update processes, additional risk mitigation controls shall be implemented in Mobile Banking App after 15 days of implementation of this MATM release.

2. All the customers whose registered mobile number is tagged with more than one CIF, shall be given a notice (through SMS) of 15 days to update their unique mobile number in IPPB systems, failing which their mobile banking app services shall be deactivated.

3. As a result, customers shall approach MATM access points to update their mobile number.

4. There could be a genuine scenario where a group of customers, assume a family, may have only one mobile number shared amongst them. In such a scenario, ONLY ONE among the group, shall be allowed to update to existing mobile on first come first serve basis, after OTP and biometric authentication.

5. In the above scenario, the end user may educate the customer group/family that only one member will be allowed to use mobile banking going forward and that customer/family member can update the same mobile number again in the system. Subsequent updates of the same mobile number to any other CIF in that family/group is not allowed.