Bank of Baroda (BoB), the state-owned lender, has suspended some of its employees after the controversy over alleged tampering of customer accounts in its mobile application `bob World’.

Sources close to the bank confirmed action against some of the staff following an audit.

Though reports indicated interim action against more than 50 employees, sources said the number is much smaller.

It is understood that a large part of the action by BoB for wrongful registration and activation of the app without the consent of customers is concentrated at some of its Gujarat branches, though this could not be independently verified.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India had barred BoB from onboarding new customers into the mobile application with immediate effect.

The RBI said it saw certain “material supervisory concerns’’ in the manner in which it onboarded customers on the mobile platform.

Any further onboarding of customers on the ‘bob World’ application will be subject to the rectification of the deficiencies observed and strengthening of the related processes by the bank to its satisfaction, the RBI said.

Earlier, a news channel citing a whistleblower had reported that certain employees of the bank allegedly tampered with the bank accounts of some of its customers to sign up for its app.

“While the bank has already carried out corrective measures to address the concerns of the RBI, we have initiated further steps to plug any remaining gaps identified and we will work closely with the RBI to address their concerns at the earliest to their satisfaction,’’ BoB had said.

Existing customers will not face any disruption and will continue to enjoy uninterrupted services on the app, BoB said.