Bank’s 5 lakh+ physical touch points offered 45+ products and services to 2.7 million customers in rural areas
by Suman Gupta
Mumbai, October 21, 2022: HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has won the prestigious CII DX 2022 Digital Transformation Award for ‘Changing Customer Experience in Rural Banking’ in the category of Most Innovative Practice in Customer Experience through Digital Transformation.
For the digital transformation initiative ‘Changing Customer Experience in Rural Banking,’ the bank tied up with over 5 lakh agents across India who took banking to the under banked and the unbanked sections across the country.
Through this initiative, the bank addressed challenges such as sparse physical banking touchpoints in rural areas, absence of right products for the market, and longer time to service their needs due to lack of required documentation. The bank did this by offering banking services from local influencers in regional languages which eliminated time effort required to travel to distant branches, giving access to a suite of 45+ products and services of the bank and using digital solutions for quicker turn around for credit approvals.
“We are delighted to be recognised by CII for this initiative. The Bank’s 5 lakh+ physical touch points offered 45+ products and services, to 2.7 million customers in rural areas,” says Ms Smita Bhagat, Country Head – Government and Institutional Business, Alternate Banking Channels and Partnerships, Inclusive Banking Groups and Start-Ups, HDFC Bank. “For this initiative, we married the physical outlet presence of agent network along with technology to enable customers to receive tailor made products and services of the Bank at their doorstep, while providing a source of income to about 5 lakh agents.
This is the second year in a row, the Bank has won the most innovative practice award at CII DX forum. Last year, it won an award in the Financial Inclusion category.
Present during the award ceremony were: Mr. Dinesh Luthra-Executive Vice President and Business Head, Alternate Banking Channels & Partnerships and Ajay Sharma-Senior Vice President and Head-Product, Digital Solutions & Process, Alternate Banking Channels & Partnerships. The Alternative Banking Channels and Partnerships unit has been driving this particular initiative.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) bestows DX Awards to recognise the innovative, resilient and sustainable strategies for introduction or adoption of digital technologies that serves as a benchmark for other industries in their journey for Digital Transformation. CII received over 480 nominations for the awards.
