Glitchy Bank Networks Slow India’s Mobile Payments Revolution
The country has a great system for allowing new apps to connect, but some lenders need to shore up their infrastructure.
An HDFC branch in Srinagar, India.
Photographer: Fayaz Kabli/ReutersEven before the pandemic, Indian consumers were taking up mobile payment technologies with remarkable speed. There’s just one problem: The networks of India’s biggest banks have struggled to keep pace, crashing again and again.
The outages are exposing years of underinvestment in technology and a surprising lack of preparedness, analysts and executives say. The problems have been especially embarrassing for HDFC Bank Ltd., the country’s top bank by market value. It’s touted its online prowess, only to be blasted on Twitter by frustrated customers and banned by India’s bank regulator from offering new digital products until its technology is fixed.