NEW DELHI: An unusual glitch on Monday saw several Kotak Mahindra Bank account holders getting wrong debit messages, creating panic among customers, some of whom took to social media to report the issue.
“Massive technical glitch in Kotak Bank, it seems. Rs 81,972 debited from my account (I don’t even have that much in all my a/cs put together). Call centre exec says ppl have lost Rs 6 lakh+ or Rs 1 lakh +, so I shouldn’t worry. Wait for 24 hours, she said,” tweeted an irate customer of the bank.
When contacted, a Kotak Mahindra Bank spokesperson told this publication that the issue has been resolved and that it was not widespread.
With more users tweeting that they had also received such debit messages, the Mumbai-based private bank later issued a short statement saying the glitch was due to wrong settlement claims by a public sector lender for Kotak debit cards used on the PSU bank’s point of sales (POS) terminals.
“A PSU bank has claimed wrong amounts in the settlement file for card transactions done at merchant establishments managed by the PSU Bank’s POS. This has resulted in excess debit from customers’ bank accounts. All such excess debits have already been reversed,” said Rohit Rao, chief communication officer, Kotak Mahindra Group.
Amid instances of banking fraud becoming too common, it could not be immediately ascertained which state-owned lender had claimed the wrong amounts and if it was a technical glitch or human error.