Covid-19 outbreak was unexpected and therefore we were not prepared. However, one thing what got best out of the crisis is coming together and making it as an opportunity. We are happy that we could seize it because we had something developed which was on the back-burner called a digital account opening which helped us to garner quite a lot of customers, says Murali Vaidyanathan, President & Country Head – Branch Banking, Equitas Small Finance Bank.
While sharing his views during a virtual panel discussion on topic Banking@2025-The Viral Transmission of the Digital Future, hosted during Elets Nextgen BFSI Virtual Summit, he said, “The problem in India is different for different sets of banks. There are large public sector banks, State Bank of India leads the pack then you have private sector banks where ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak are leading, there are Small Finance Banks and then you have Co-operative banks. This is how banks are stacked at this point in time. You create an infrastructure at a given point of time and you are evolving in a different mode. So there is no Business Continuity Plan for anyone and nobody anticipated this and it caught us off guard in fact. When the news regarding the outbreak came, we were needed to be nimble-footed and get it moving was the demand at that point of time.
Talking about the measures taken by Equitas Small Finance Bank, he said, “We got three things done immediately. We improvised on the existing products and went digital, which is one of the very early mode advantages so that we keep the kitchen. Thanks to our mobile banking and internet banking proposition, we decided that we will use the digital technology for products processes and most importantly for customer service.”
“We were not prepared but one thing what got best out of the crisis is coming together and making it as an opportunity so we could seize it because we had something developed which was on the backburner called a digital account opening which helped us to garner quite a lot of customers.”
“This took us towards the video KYC and now that platform digital platform has become most important platform to an extent that 88 percent of the transaction of the bank is now happening through digital mode so customers were able to adapt to themselves and they were able to do it themselves. It’s a straight-through process which we improvised and innovated and most important thing we could handle this entire situation as of now and going forward also. People working from home are able to handle it within their desk or within their room, inside the house. So, this has been a huge transformation in terms of banks culture banks philosophy and most importantly customer finding it 24 hours,” he added.
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