SBI internet banking facility may be blocked if mobile number not linked before December

New Delhi: India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has said that customers will not be allowed to user internet banking facility if they fail to link their mobile phones with the bank before December this year.

“Attention INB users, please register your mobile number with us immediately, if not already done, through Branch, failing which the Internet Banking facility may be blocked with effect from 01.12.2018,” SBI wrote in its website.

The latest SBI announcement comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India's circular in July this year stating that banks must ask their customers to mandatorily register for SMS alerts and wherever available register for e-mail alerts, for electronic banking transactions.

The SMS alerts shall mandatorily be sent to the customers, while email alerts may be sent, wherever registered. The customers must be advised to notify their bank of any unauthorised electronic banking transaction at the earliest after the occurrence of such transaction, and informed that the longer the time taken to notify the bank, the higher will be the risk of loss to the bank/ customer, the RBI circular had said.

To facilitate this, banks must provide customers with 24x7 access through multiple channels (at a minimum, via website, phone banking, SMS, e-mail, IVR, a dedicated toll-free helpline, reporting to home branch, etc.) for reporting unauthorised transactions that have taken place and/ or loss or theft of payment instrument such as card, etc. Banks shall also enable customers to instantly respond by "Reply" to the SMS and e-mail alerts and the customers should not be required to search for a web page or an e-mail address to notify the objection, RBI had said.