Strategic Focus
Building a robust banking franchise
In line with our mission of creating the most valuable bank for all our stakeholders, we are focusing on balancing growth and profitability while improving efficiency across all our channels. Over the past three years, we have made significant investments in our physical and digital infrastructure, which will enable us to further expand our customer base.
Deepen penetration and drive operational efficiency
We have made significant investments in expanding our network of Banking Outlets and associated support structures, including ATMs, technology infrastructure, and employee training activities. This has enabled us to gain visibility in certain key regions, establish a trained employee base, and expand our customer base. We plan to leverage this network to deepen our penetration among existing customers and add new customers.
Our primary objective is to improve productivity across all our channels. To attract mass and mass-affluent customers to strengthen our deposit mobilisation, we have introduced features such as instant account opening, customer service resources, mobile and banking applications with enhanced features and other value-added services.
Strengthen Liability Franchise to Further Improve Cost of Funds
We aim to grow our retail deposit base with a focus on improving the share of CASA deposits in the overall mix. This will provide us a stable and low-cost source of funding. We have identified the mass and mass-affluent customer segments as our primary sources of deposits, and have developed a range of saving accounts, current accounts, and recurring deposits, along with services such as wealth management for facilitating mutual fund investments. Further, we plan to strategically expand our network of Banking Outlets and carry out focused marketing and brand building activities to attract our targeted customer segments.
Leverage Data for Analytics
Higher mobile penetration, improved connectivity, faster and cheaper data, supported by Aadhaar and bank account penetration have led India to shift from being a cash-dominated economy to a digital one. We continue to invest in technology as a means of improving our customers’ banking experience. The data we continue to collect relating to cash flows, credit and behaviours of our customer segments are analysed to derive a granular understanding of such customer segments. Further, as a large portion of our customers are first-time borrowers, relying solely on credit bureaus for credit decisions is inadequate. We are developing suitable underwriting models to pre-approve certain types of loans that we believe will appeal to customers in the underserved segments.
Continue to Focus on Digitalisation to Drive Growth
As a modern, technology-enabled bank, we continue to develop and update various digital offerings. We plan to leverage our front-end technology platforms to further improve customer acquisition and transaction management. This will also make it easier for customers to manage their accounts, while facilitating significant cross-selling opportunities for a wider range of products on our digital platform, thereby building on our existing relationship with our customers. We are developing digital-only products, specifically designed for the younger and technologically savvy customer base. Our endeavour is to empower customers to access various products and services on their own, reduce our operating costs and increase efficiencies.
Diversify Offerings and Leverage Cross-selling Opportunities
We are focusing on diversifying our product offerings while growing our secured loan portfolio. In order to achieve this, we conduct qualitative and quantitative research to understand the changing requirements and expectations of our customers. Our long-standing relationships with small business owners as their primary financier as their sole banker provide us a competitive edge in cross-selling the wide gamut of products and services offering by the Bank. This will further deepen our engagement with this customer base. We also plan to offer wholesale agriculture loans for funding capital expenditure as well as working capital requirements in the food- and agriculture-based industries. Our objective is to increase the proportion of secured to unsecured products to build a scalable, sustainable and stable portfolio.
Increase Share of Non-interest/Fee Income
Diversifying our fee and non-fund based revenues is key to improving our profitability. We are focusing on increasing the distribution of third-party products such as mutual funds and insurance to shore up our fee income base. Further, we plan to offer various payment solutions through our digital banking platforms. Bancassurance channels are key to achieving this strategic objective. Further, we see significant opportunities in undertaking government banking business such as Aadhar enrolment, collection and disbursement of gratuity and provident fund, tax collection. On the liability side, we will continue to engage with our mass and mass-affluent customers and promote our wealth management services.