Mumbai: Banks, which were looking to integrate WhatsApp as a key channel for customers to transact on, are reviewing their policies in respect of the use of the messaging platform. This comes after general concerns among the public that have arisen over Facebook sharing user data among its group companies. HDFC Bank, which was earlier offering customers the option to obtain bank account balances through WhatsApp banking, has discontinued the facility. Customers seeking balance inquiry are asked to use the bank’s mobile banking app, net banking or other offline methods. Others — ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank — continue to allow customers to check their balance. According to an industry source, earlier the idea was to have deep integration with the bank’s systems and artificial intelligence chatbots so that customers can get their servicing requests and even transactions done in a straight-through manner. The idea was to facilitate the entire banking experience through the social media platform, where customers spend most of their time, without having to log into net banking. Now there appears to be some caution in using WhatsApp banking as a channel. It is not clear whether HDFC Bank’s change in WhatsApp…
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Banks review services policy for WhatsApp
