HDFC Bank reaps tech gains

Mumbai, Dec. 20: HDFC Bank, the country's second-largest private lender, is feeling the impact of its thrust on digital banking that began more than two years ago.

Close to 63 per cent of the transactions done by its customers were through the Internet and mobile in 2014-15, up from 58 per cent in the preceding year and 44 per cent in 2012-13. Besides, its mobile phone apps such as PayZapp and Chillr have already seen a million downloads each.

PayZapp, launched in June, enables customers to make online payments and transfer money, while Chillr allows users to send money to anyone in their phone book.

The value of HDFC Bank's mobile banking transactions stood at over Rs 6,928.71 crore in September, the second highest in the domestic banking sector, against Rs 6,461 crore in July.

Customers can now carry out 205 different types of transactions on the Internet and 85 on mobile. The bank branches are also fully digitally-enabled.

"We are looking digital as a way to bank. HDFC Bank is not into launching a few apps and claiming that it has gone digital. The guiding principle at our bank is that it should simplify things for the customer," Nitin Chugh, group head-digital banking of HDFC Bank, said.

Chugh said the lender's efforts had been well-received by its customers, both across metro and non-metro locations.

The bank has been successful in initiating many customers, who earlier visited branches or called phone banking, to these new channels.

"When a customer comes to our branch, we guide them on how to do various transactions on their own. Lot of our focus has been on customer education and on-boarding those who have been using the physical channels. As a result of our efforts, we saw that many customers started using the services on their own. Over a period of time, the width of services that they used have also expanded," he said.

Chugh said one of the key reasons behind the success of HDFC Bank was its "innovation team", which constantly toyed with different ideas to make it more convenient for the user. One such service allows customers to recharge their mobile phone by giving a missed call to the bank.

HDFC Bank