Citibank’s internet banking and other services will remain closed for its customers on the intervening nights of Saturday and Sunday. According to the email communication from the bank to its customers, the outage will continue for nine hours.
Citibank has a substantial setup of credit card business in India. It was among the early entrants to the credit card business in the country and has over two million customers.
According to the mail sent by Citibank, its services will be affected from 9.30 pm on 16 October to 6.30 am on 17 October. These services are:
• RTGS transactions will be closed on October 17 between 2.30 am to 6.30 am
• Citibank Online and Citibank Mobile services will be closed on 17 October between 1 AM to 2 PM
• IVR self-service will be closed between 9.30 am on 16th October to 12.30 pm on 17th October
• Credit cards and Samsung Pay Wallet will remain closed from 9.30 pm on 16 October to 1.30 pm on 17 October
The email communication further states that any credit card transaction can be disputed by accessing the link sent as part of the system generated transaction SMS during downtime.
According to Citibank’s website, it opened its first office in India in 1902 and is a significant foreign investor. In 1993, it became the first bank to offer 24-hour phone banking, the website further said.
Citibank also launched next generation contactless credit card payments based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology with Citi Tap & Pay in 2009, which according to its website was the first such initiative in India.
Bloomberg reported in April this year that Citigroup Inc. It plans to exit retail banking in 13 markets across Asia (including India) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa region.
Instead the bank will operate its consumer-banking franchises in both regions from four wealth centers in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and London.
