PNB openly publishing Mobile No of Employees on Internet, Females worried about Safety!

Punjab National Bank, one of India’s largest public sector banks, has published the mobile numbers of its employees on the internet. The personal mobile numbers of branch managers have been published on the official website of Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Normally, the official contact numbers of branches should be displayed on the PNB website, but the bank is displaying the personal mobile numbers of branch heads.

The mobile numbers are being displayed not only on the PNB website but also printed on the passbooks given to customers. When a customer gets the first page of their passbook printed, the mobile number of the branch head is also printed.

This is causing significant inconvenience to bank managers and is a serious breach of privacy. How can a bank publicly display the mobile numbers of its employees?

Moreover, the contact details of even female Branch managers have been published on the website of Punjab National Bank. We searched for PNB Greater Noida PI Branch details and personal contact number of female Branch Head was displayed on the website. The screenshot is attached below as proof.

The details are also publicly available on Google. We searched on Google – PNB sector 63 branch ifsc, Google displayed the personal mobile number of branch head. There is no fault of Google in this. Google fetches data from the website of PNB and mobile number of employees are available on the website of PNB. The screenshot is attached as proof.

This is a very serious concern and should be looked into. This is a serious breach of privacy, especially in cases of females.

One of the female Branch Head said – I receive random calls even at night. It has become highly frustrating for me. How can Bank publish the personal mobile numbers of employees on internet? This is a serious lapse on the part of Bank. Bank should think about the safety of its female staff.

What’s even more surprising is that PNB does not have an official contact number for its branches. Bank employees contact customers using their personal mobile numbers.

The bank should have a designated official contact number for each branch, and that number should be displayed and provided to customers.

The same issue has also been raised by Shri Abhilash S, Circle Secretary of AIPNBOA, Kozhikode, with the General Secretary of the association.

In its representation, the association stated that when customers search for a branch’s contact details through an internet browser, the name and mobile number of the concerned branch head are displayed along with other branch details. It pointed out that in many cases, branch heads use a single mobile number for both personal and official purposes. The same number is also registered and updated in various bank records.

The association further stated that the bank published these mobile numbers on its official website without informing or consulting the concerned branch heads in advance.

Following the publication of these numbers, branch heads have started receiving calls and messages from customers round the clock regarding various banking-related matters. This has caused considerable inconvenience to officers and is adversely affecting their work-life balance.