Crores transferred to some Chennai HDFC customers as bank saw technical glitch

While the affected customers were unable to make transactions, the hold was released a few hours later.
HDFC Bank logo
HDFC Bank logo
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Several customers of HDFC Bank in Chennai were in for a shock when they realised that their bank balances inadvertently shot up by as much as a few crores on Sunday, May 29. Around 100 customers saw their bank balances swell by between a few thousand rupees and Rs 13 crore, which the bank has blamed on a technical glitch during a systems upgrade. The incident was reported from a handful of branches across the city, and a total of about Rs 13 crore was transferred to people’s accounts, according to the Times of India. 

While customers were surprised at the incident, they began fuming when they were unable to make any transactions, and were not able to receive other credits into their accounts. However, the hold was released later in the evening. 

One of the customers said that the balance in his wife’s account increased by Rs 1.23 crore without any credit entry, and the extra amount disappeared by the evening without showing any debit entry as well. “So midnight @HDFC_Bank decides to become SantaClaus and increase the balance in my wifes account by 1.23 crore (no credit entry). Are they trying to do some sort of scam by randomly using a common citizen’s account? At noon the balance vanished (no debit entry),” he tweeted.

A bank spokesperson told the Economic Times (ET) that a display error was noticed in a few customer accounts after a routine system patch upgrade activity on Saturday night, May 28. “This caused some customers of the bank to note an erroneous amount credited to their account. After the proactive detection, a debit block was placed on these accounts, a majority of which have now been removed,” the spokesperson added. 

As a result of the freeze, those customers were not able to transfer funds to other accounts but could receive cash. A person familiar with the matter told ET that during the course of system upgradation, a particular loop was suspected to have gone wrong, showing an optical surge in bank balances. The affected customers reportedly received no notification about the inflation of their accounts.

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