Mumbai: AU Small Finance Bank is investigating a possible data leak involving a third-party Salesforce platform that stores limited information about its vehicle loan customers, the lender confirmed on October 30.
The investigation follows allegations by hacker group ScarlettGroup, which claimed to have breached the bank’s systems and threatened to release sensitive customer information and internal corporate data.
In response to queries, a bank spokesperson stated that the potential leak involved a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform managed and hosted by Salesforce. The platform contains limited information related to the bank’s vehicle loan customers.
The spokesperson clarified that the bank’s internal systems had not been affected and that all banking services continued to operate normally.
However, cybersecurity monitoring platform Hackmanac reported on X that the allegedly compromised data cache included customer records, PAN and Aadhaar details, bank statements, credit reports and loan agreements. It also reportedly contained customer relationship management (CRM) information, employee records, login histories and audit logs.
The scale of the alleged exposure remains unclear. AU Small Finance Bank reported 12.2 million unique customers at the end of FY26 in its latest annual report. It has not been established how many customers may have been affected or whether the bank has notified those potentially involved.
In its annual report, the lender highlighted progress in strengthening its digital infrastructure through advanced analytics, cloud transformation, cybersecurity upgrades and automated workflows. The development comes as India’s banking sector faces increased scrutiny over the protection of customer information following other reported data security incidents.
Earlier in October, State Bank of India (SBI) disclosed a data-loss incident after customer records surfaced on the dark web. A preliminary assessment of nearly 375,000 records identified 3,897 containing personally identifiable information, according to the bank’s October 21 disclosure.
Bank of Baroda also reported a security incident in July after a compromised employee email account resulted in unauthorised access to certain information.
Meanwhile, AU Small Finance Bank shares were trading at Rs 865.70 on the National Stock Exchange at 1.27 pm on October 30, down 1.7 percent from the previous closing price.
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