UCO Bank stops online IMPS transfers as flawed payments surface

Mumbai, Nov 16 (IANS) The government-owned UCO Bank has temporarily stopped online Immediate Payment System (IMPS) transfers as funds from transactions initiated by customers of other banks were credited to account holders of UCO Bank, but the bank did not actually receive the money.

The incidents occurred between November 10 and 13, and the facility was stopped on Wednesday, UCO Bank said in a stock exchange filing.

"The bank, as a precautionary measure, has made the IMPS channel offline and is working closely with stakeholders to resolve the issue and restore the IMPS services at the earliest. The matter has been reported to law enforcement agencies for further action,” UCO Bank said.

"The financial impact is yet to be ascertained, and the bank will endeavour to intimate the same on ascertainment," it added.

However, in a second filing UCO Bank claimed that this is an "internal technical issue as a result of which bank customers received some erroneous credits via IMPS".

Some bankers are of the view that it could be a cyber attack on the UCO Bank system

IMPS is a real-time interbank electronic funds transfer system that is linked to the UPI.

There is a daily transaction limit of Rs 5 lakh under IMPS.