SBI Net Banking: Why Online Banking, UPI Services Disrupted?

SBI Net Banking: Customers of leading public sector undertaking (PSU) State Bank of India came across troubles while accessing online banking and ATM-related services. The country’s largest bank witnessed a technical issue that impacted mobile banking services all over the country. Customers faced issued while accessing their accounts, using ATMs, and even in transferring money. The bank’s online banking, YONO services, UPI reportedly suffered downtime on April 1. Customers took to their social media platforms and reported about the payment delay, transaction failure, login troubles, and other issues on a day when banks remain shut for closing their year accounts.

The problem occurred at a crucial period when banks kicked off the new financial year 2025-26. As per the Downdetector, complaints pertaining to SBI’s online services and UPI touched its highest point between 11 am to 11:30 am, as per data available. According to the data, a total of 64% complaints were linked to mobile banking, 33% customers witnessed issued related to fund-transfer, and 3% faced issues related to ATM errors.

However, the PSU was quick to issue an official statement on its social media handle X (formerly Twitter) and threw light the possible factors that led to disruption in key services.

According to the statement issued by SBI on X, “Due to annual closing activities, our digital services will be unavailable to our esteemed customers between 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on 01.04.2025. We request you to use UPI Lite and ATM channels for uninterrupted services. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.”

However, the bank issued clarification pertaining to the disruption as a result of the year-end audit activities, but it did not issue any official statement related to the previous technical issues that users faced in morning.

The customers of the PSU also witnessed issues in March and came across difficulties in accessing key mobile banking services and UPI for nearly 4 hours as a result of some technical issue. The customers began facing troubles around 12:30 hrs on March 11, 2024 and took to their social media handles to report about their troubles.

On the other hand, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) also addressed the issue that customers faced. It stated that they worked closely with leading banks to address the issue. NPCI issued an official statement pertaining to the issue and said, “Today, due to financial year closing, some banks are facing intermittent transaction declines. The UPI system is working fine, and we are working with the concerned banks for necessary redressal.” The possible reason that may have caused the issue included introduction of latest UPI rules beginning from April 1, 2025, higher than usual transaction values as a result of financial year end causing systems overload, and scheduled maintenance and audits, impacting core banking operations.