Axis Bank EVP, BFSI News, ET BFSI
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Axis Bank‘s digital penetration has risen to over 70-73%, but it does not see a future without bank branches soon.
“It will probably take another one generation shift, for us to you know sort of planning a strategy in which there is sort of absolutely no branches. But yes, goes without saying that the intensity of branch expansion has sort of come down dramatically now from what it used to be,” Avinash Raghavendra, EVP and Head of Information Technology of Axis Bank, said at the fireside chat, with Amol Dethe, editor of ETBFSI, during the three-day event – ETBFSI Converge.
A bank branch is more like an engagement hub, where customers can come and if they have some essential queries.
“We have 4,500 plus branches and this presence and the reach actually gives visibility in the customers’ mind which any other medium or advertisement will probably not be able to do perform. Somebody taking a home loan would preferably like to deal with an entity whom they have seen. There is a new age of customers millennial customers who are thinking very differently about it, that is where all the digital property is coming into the picture,” he said.
Digital shift
5,000 sq ft to 5 inch is definitely happening, he said, adding, “If you are talking about an inflexion point in 5-6 years people will rarely visit branches. The new next generation will not like to walk into any of the branches.”
Most of the bank’s fixed deposit openings, over 70% of savings bank account openings are coming from digital channels.
“This shift has happened some years back. I mean as far as doing your fund transfer and doing your transaction kind of a thing that shift has also happened,” he said. Right now, the bank is focusing on some of the servicing issues for a lot of customers who used to come to the branch for as basic as updating Aadhar or change of address.”Avinash Raghavendra, EVP and Head of Information Technology of Axis Bank
The only customers these days who are mostly visiting the branches is someone with a locker service because that is a physical kind of a property.
On apps
Axis Bank app has a ‘Do It Yourself’ kind of a feature that allows for 250 plus transactions. “So that’s a very large number, and given the fact that our digital customer base is 73% plus, these customers are seeing traction when it comes to whatever we enable for them on the mobility side,” he said.
Credit card and debit card usage rules, which now RBI has also sort of mandated, have been incorporated inside the app, he said.
The bank engages with UIUH experts and internally has a UX team that does a lot of work.
“We do take a lot of feedback from customers in terms of what features they want. What we have seen there is 20% of features that is used by 80% of customers, so these services should be easily made available to the customers. We are also trying to come with as much of personalisation. Like reminder for FD maturity, basically, providing some sort of intelligent nudges, instead of getting them searching got those particular options,” he said.
On the super app, he said, there is very little that we are not offering in the app at the moment. “Super app is mainly for conglomerates who are doing different kinds of thing. As we are going more and more digital it is actually shaping a personal advisory kind of a function,” Raghavendra said.
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