HDFC Bank, an Indian banking and financial service company, was adjudged the ‘Best Digital Bank’ in India at the AsiaMoney Best Bank Awards 2019.
It has been awarded the title on the basis of its best-in-class digital banking initiatives. The bank’s journey to become a digital banking forerunner began in 2014, with the launch of its ‘Bank AapkiMuthhi Mein’ campaign from the banks of the Ganges.
Since then it has gone on to launch many customer favourites such as the 10-second Personal Loan, Custom-Fit Auto Loans, Digital Loan Against Securities, Digital Loan Against Mutual Funds, and PayZapp.
The bank has made major strides in tapping new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, chatbots and the internet of things, in its digital banking services. Platforms such as the annual Digital Innovation Summit – where the start-ups can showcase innovative solutions to the bank- are some of the ways the bank is ensuring that it stays future-ready.
Asiamoney’s award decisions are made by a team of senior journalists, chaired by Euromoney’s editor, after receiving detailed submissions from market participants. They are reviewed in conjunction with research into the banking and capital markets by the editorial committee. This preliminary information is personally verified by a team of senior editors who visit each country to meet leading bankers and gather client and competitor feedback. The publication stated that when it sat down in early 2019 with the chief executives of India’s banks and asked them to identify the best provider of digital banking services, the answer came back crisp and clear: HDFC Bank.
Commenting on the award, Asiamoney wrote in its editorial, “Over the last two years, under the leadership of longstanding managing director Aditya Puri, HDFC has become a genuine digital force. This is in large part because it chose to take a step back, take a hard look at what services customers wanted, and start working toward those goals.”
“It is also engaging with digital on digital’s terms, by encouraging chaos now with the aim of harnessing it later. Thus, an annual ‘hackathon’ encourages individuals and startups to compete to solve emerging digital-use cases, while its user-experience lab acts as a digital laboratory, harnessing and honing ideas to ensure that HDFC Bank is delivering best-in-class services to its customers. It is all overseen by a digital command centre that brings real-time intelligence to the group, helping HDFC Bank to make informed commercial and strategic decisions,” it added in the editorial. (Inputs from CNS)
