With the advent of technology-driven banking, which throws up numerous opportunities for the new-age banks, Managing Director & CEO of the country’s top private lender ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar has said that the new-age banks can complement the existing banking system.
“Both categories of banks—existing and new ones—have important roles to play, as India has a very large untapped market. We believe the new banks will complement the existing banking system and there will be opportunities for players to identify mutually beneficial partnerships. We will explore opportunities in this regard,” said Kochhar.
She further said that while payments banks can focus on customer convenience and functionality/ technology of several payment platforms.
“The scope of activities for payments banks mainly includes acceptance of demand deposits, issuance of ATM/debit cards, payment and remittance services and distribution of third-party products. Payments banks can also act as business correspondents of other banks,” she said.
Kochhar, who participated here for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, said the full-service banks on the other hand have “a comprehensive product suite, deep customer relationships and at the same time the ability to leverage technology to offer greater convenience to the customer, which is what we are actively pursuing”.
Citing the instance of ‘Pockets’, ICICI Bank’s digital mobile wallet, she said it has been positioned as India’s first digital bank.
Since its launch in February 2015, ‘Pockets’ has seen nearly 3 million downloads with over 70 per cent users being new to the bank, she added.
“The government’s focus on manufacturing, infrastructure, digitisation and urbanisation will present several opportunities for all businesses, going forward. Rising incomes and positive demographics will provide opportunities for retail financial services in India.
“All these initiatives will contribute to higher economic growth, translating into additional growth for the Indian banking sector,” she added.
