RBL Bank accelerates Digital Banking

The ongoing pandemic in India has led to a sharp increase in digital banking, and consequently, raised the expectations of consumers who want instant and personalised services. A large number of people staying at home are turning to digital channels, both online and mobile, to fulfil most of their banking requirements. As a result, traditional visits to branches and face-to-face interactions with bank staff have reduced.

Banks in India had already been making a push for cashless and contactless transactions before Covid-19. Since March 2020, however, banks have expanded their digital footprints across the banking space. They have been designing and deploying smarter and more innovative products and solutions through apps and websites, and meeting the growing consumer demand. Banks are using digital channels to offer a range of services, including onboarding new customers through video KYC, deposits and withdrawals, outward remittances, payment collections etc.. Late last year, National Payments Corporation of India approved a WhatsApp proposal to allow users to transfer and receive money through the messaging app.

As the pandemic disrupted economic activity, including banking and financial operations, RBL Bank saw a significant opportunity to accelerate its digital banking initiatives to help customers during the health crisis and gear up for the post-Covid-19 era. With speed and agility key to digital transformation, RBL Bank made big strides in digital banking.

Over the past several months, the Bank has offered paperless customer onboarding, Aadhaar and video KYC, contactless debit cards, cardless cash withdrawals, Tap and Pay through mobile, Scan and Pay, payments and remittances, UPI-based collection, and chatbot, among other benefits. Additionally, it has been forging strategic partnerships through open banking.

The Bank customers can now use their mobile phones to tap and pay at point-of-sale (POS) through NFC, withdraw cash without debit cards from over 40,000 IMT-enabled (Instant Money Transfer) ATMs across the country, and use WhatsApp to get realtime updates on account balance, credit cards, products and services, and opening a new digital account. In a unique initiative, RBL Bank's ATM-on-Wheels reaches out to vulnerable communities, particularly the elderly, and helps them to withdraw money.

RBL Bank has made banking still easier by launching the AI-powered RBL Cares chatbot that allows customers to chat with the 24x7 bot and get realtime updates on their bank accounts, fixed deposits and credit cards as well as information on new products and services.

To minimise customer visits to its branches, RBL Bank launched an instant digital bank account opening facility that allows customers to open accounts from anywhere in the country through a fully paperless onboarding, powered by Video KYC. The monthly onboarding of customers through digital channels has increased to 45% over the last three-and-a-half years. About 60% of total deposits (FDs and RDs) have come through the digital route. The Bank has witnessed 10X jump in online bill payments.

In an effort to make the Banking experience seamless and convenient, the Bank has a state-of-art mobile banking application, RBL MoBank, with over 200 banking products and services available to all its retail customers across CASA, Credit Cards, Loans and Wealth Management businesses. Currently, over 60% of the Bank's customers adopt the mobile banking application within 10 to 12 days of opening the account. RBL Bank aims to increase this to 85% among its existing customers. In line with its endeavour to make digital banking more inclusive for its rural customer base, the MoBank App is also available in regional languages like Hindi, Marathi etc.

Moreover, the Bank's Liberalised Remittance Scheme has also contributed to stepping up the digitization process, with the launch of specialized online digital remittance platform. The all-in-one digital platform will enable prompt remittances with faster money transfer.

WhatsApp Banking

WhatsApp Banking offered by the Bank provides real-time updates, including information on account balance, credit cards, products and even opening of new digital account. The unique adoption of this digital medium stands at 62%.

Partnered with Mastercard to offer first-ofits-kind, payment functionality in India The Bank launched a mobile based consumer-friendly payments solution - Pay by Bank App, a first-of-its-kind payment functionality in India. The Bank's account holders can enjoy contactless transactions across the world through their mobile banking application both in-store and online. To provide enhanced security, 'Pay by Bank App' ensures that Bank customer's payment credentials are never exposed to the merchant, making the transaction completely secure.

Open-Banking Journey

The Bank follows 'Partnership Model' where the Partner (Non-Bank) in association with RBL Bank provides a software overlay. This empowers the customers of the Partner (Non-Bank) to access the complete banking suite of RBL Bank like opening of CASA accounts, applying for loans, issuing co-branded cards and payment services, plug and play API stack across customer lifecycle etc. along with the services provided by the partner like expense management, preparation of invoice, vendor payment management, financial management etc.

RBL Bank's Head of Branch Banking Surinder Chawla said, "The adoption of advanced digital channels across business segments grew by 98% in 2020, indicating the immense significance we attach to our digital journey. Our digital foray is making banking easier and convenient for our customers without compromising on security and privacy. The ongoing pandemic has given us an opportunity to leverage our technological capabilities and successfully drive digital transformation across business segments. It will be our constant endeavour to digitally engage with customers long after Covid-19."

Going forward, the Bank, will continue to invest in robust digital technologies and leading franchises to drive business in retail banking, expand its customer base and maintain the growth momentum.

Shares of RBL Bank Ltd was last trading in BSE at Rs.209.75 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 215.9. The total number of shares traded during the day was 525155 in over 8057 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 216 and intraday low of 209. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 111420344.

Source : Equity Bulls

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