While the business of banking, intermeshed with macroeconomic scenarios, will continue to navigate both the intermittent headwinds and tailwinds, there has been another strong story building up on the back of technology-driven disruptions. “We are now in the fourth year of our ‘large bank’ phase and have already achieved a CASA ratio of 36.5 per cent (FY18), making substantial progress towards achieving size and scale as a large bank, with a firmly embedded digital banking ethos, and a focus on quality,” says Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer, Yes Bank.
Grasping the speed and importance of the digital space specific to the banking industry, Yes Bank has invested significantly in upgrading core systems like Core Banking System, debit card switch, mobility platforms, and chatbots. “The bank shall continue to do so for the coming 24 months to create a next-generation digital platform which can provide a ‘Unified Digital Experience’ across the internet, mobile, voice and BOT channels,” says Pai.
These initiatives will ensure that there are heightened customer engagements and superior customer service. For example, over the previous year, Yes Bank has implemented ‘Bots’ technology for customer acquisition, personal banking assistant, cross-sell and customer servicing for various businesses. In addition to helping customers explore the bank services and seek product information, Yes Bank’s ‘Yes Robot’ also allows customers to transact over chat, which is one of the industry-first features integrated into the Bot.
Untapped segments
Yes Bank is also creating Centers of Excellence for Robotics and Analytics, which will play a pivotal role in reducing service time and enhancing the quality of customer interactions and elements key for customer delight.
Pai says, “One of the key pillars of Yes Bank’s digital banking strategy is to build digital businesses around emerging payment systems to address untapped segments and create a multiplier effect on the reach.”
There is a two-pronged strategy – firstly, through the bank’s ART (Alliances, Relationships and Technology) strategy, they forged strong partnerships with merchants and other players in the payments ecosystem. The strategy has hugely benefitted them in not just new customer acquisition but also ensuring that value is delivered right for long-term stickiness. Secondly, they have set up a Fintech Accelerator – Yes Fintech through which they are identifying emerging payment solutions and co-creating them with fintech startups.
Yes Bank is scaling up UPI, IMPS, BBPS and prepaid payment instruments through multiple third parties. With the pace at which payment solutions are getting implemented in India, supported by progressive policies, the country has definitely seen non-cash based transactions get fast-tracked by three years at least.
“At Yes Bank, we have seen these fantastic times playing out, with great growth numbers like 111 per cent growth in credit card transactions, 921 per cent in UPI, 141 per cent in mobile banking, 2576 per cent in wallet partnerships, 1096 per cent in Yes Pay – the bank’s wallet, 49 per cent debit card,” he adds.
The bank is also exploring technologies like blockchain for easing out settlement and reconciliation processes.
Contributing to the Prime Minister’s Digital India and Smart City Missions, Yes Bank is working with multiple state governments and municipal corporations by offering them customised smart city solutions for digital payments.
Digitising retail loan business through AI backed bots
“This utility is a first of its kind in the retail lending industry backed by the cutting-edge technology of Bots, and Yes Bank is the only bank to offer this feature in the marketplace for loan products,” he says.
mPOWER BOT is a chatbot hosted on Facebook messenger and other touch points of the bank like the website, mobile banking, net banking, Yes Pay wallet, etc. It is programmed to respond with answers to all consumer loan eligibility queries and customised pricing offers. The robot asks a few questions related to the customer and instantly gives precise eligibility and a tailor-made best offer details on loans.
The Bot also connects customers with the nearest sales person on call instantly via automated call patching facility. The chatbot has the capability of providing in-principle loan approval in one minute across multiple consumer lending products (personal loan, auto loan, gold loan, loan against securities, used car loan, business loan) and also integrates with the bank’s customer scoring algorithms in real time. Recent feature addition under auto Loan triggers instant SMS alerts to the nearest dealer for arranging a test drive of the car selected in the Bot.
Creating a robust digital framework
“We have been nimble in adapting transformative technologies to augment our risk management framework by designing robust systems and processes, utilising state-of-the-art digital innovations,” he says. The bank continually invests to fortify the resilience and reliability of IT and Information Security systems to enable seamless customer services and mitigate various aspects of cyber-related threats and risks. This has facilitated the bank in offering a vast array of digital products and services to customers and promote safe, secure and convenient banking.
Data science and analytics
Pai states, “Yes Bank has been at the forefront of several industry-first innovations and technological advancements. The bank continues to grow exponentially, in line with its mission to be a ‘Technology Company in the Business of Banking’. In fact, in our efforts to re-imagine banking and delivering banking-as-a-platform, Yes Bank recognised early that data science and data analytics are key pillars to achieve these objectives and have robust relationships built with industry leaders in this space.”
The bank is creating Centers of Excellence for Robotics and Analytics which shall play a key role in reducing service times and enhancing the quality of customer interactions, the key elements for customer delight.
He further speaks about significant investments in organising and cataloging the data. “We are moving towards a culture where all our decisions are basis data and not plain ‘gut feel’. Because of good data management and analytics practices, managers can measure, and hence know, radically more about their businesses, and directly translate that knowledge into improved decision-making and performance. We feel data is vital not just to “target” customers, but also to add value to the experience we give them,” he adds.
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