State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday (April 1) announced that due to its annual closing activities today the bank’s digital services will be unavailable for a period of three hours. This scheduled closure of SBI’s digital banking services has impacted thousands of users nationwide. 

Many customers have reported difficulties with mobile banking and fund transfers. The bank has requested its customers to opt for UPI Lite and ATM channels for uninterrupted services.

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“Due to Annual Closing activities, our digital services will be unavailable to our esteemed customers between 01:00 PM to 04:00 PM (IST) on 01.04.2025. We request you to use UPI Lite and ATM channels for uninterrupted services. We apologize for the inconvenience caused,” SBI said in a post on X. 

Multiple banks facing transaction issues

Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has acknowledged that multiple banks are facing transaction issues. “Today due to financial year closing, some of the banks are facing intermittent transaction declines. UPI system is working fine, and we are working with the concerned banks for necessary redressal,” it said in a post on X. 

This announcement refers to a scheduled downtime from 1 PM and does not clarify the cause of the current service disruptions. However, the recent implementation of new UPI regulations from April 1, requiring active mobile numbers, could be a contributing factor to the mobile banking disruptions many users are experiencing.

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Bank customers report outages

Data from Downdetector indicates a surge in outage reports for SBI’s mobile banking and fund transfer services, with complaints peaking between 11:00 and 11:30 AM IST. About 64% of reported issues are linked to mobile banking, 33% to fund transfers, and 3% to ATM-related problems. 

Frustrated users have taken to social media, citing failed transactions, payment delays, and difficulties accessing their accounts.