1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Topic “Digital Innovation in Banking Sector”
This report is prepared to submit in partial fulfilment of the requirements of MBA program of IBS
Hyderabad. The report is an attempt to understand the advancement in banking products and services
being offered due to merging of digitization in banking field.
The internship was conducted in PurpleTalk Inc., a company that provides a complete application
development environment with services in strategy, engineering, design, live operations and
marketing. Founded in 2007, the company has created 700 plus applications and created value worth
2 billion. The company is headquartered in Dallas, U.S and has offices in San Francisco and
Hyderabad.
Objective of the report is to study how and why digitization was implemented in banking sector
especially in India. A comparative study was also done between 3 large banks of India in order to
understand how they went about it differently and how it affected their profit.
While studying this project, it was found that with tech-savvy Gen Y coming to scene, banks need to
adopt better strategies in order to make this section of customer more comfortable. Over the years,
private sector banks have utilized digital technologies much better as compared to public sector
banks and they have seen lot of growth which can be seen especially from the fact that in terms of
market capitalization, HDFC has broken into top 50 world banks in such short time.
Recommendations have been made in the report on new innovations which banks can implement in
future. They need to have special focus on mobile banking innovation as the number of smartphone
users is growing manifolds and people spend more time on their phones. Also, collaborating with
social media is the latest development because the new generation tends to connect more to it.
Key Words: Digitization, Banking, Mobile Banking
2. ABSTRACT
The objective of this internship is to understand what digital technologies mean in context of
banking industry, how they form the basis of dawn of a new era of banking products and
services, why and how banking and digital technologies are being merged together and what is
the future scope for it. This study has been conducted in 3 phases. In phase 1, the task has been to
understand the banking system and what digitization of banking sector means and to why and
how it is being done. After understanding the digital innovations in banking, in next phase the
task is to study how leading banks implement digitization, the products and services they are
offering under digital innovations and how it has impacted each of the banks. To see the impact,
a comparative study will be done between these banks and conclusions will be drawn based on
these findings. And in the last part, the task is to understand the current working methodology in
PurpleTalk Inc. for developing an app for a financial institution and understanding the framework
by working on a live app development for a leading bank. From the findings of this project, it can
be understood that to survive in the market of intense competition, banks need to go for
innovative digitization in products and service offerings. Also, it is visible that private banks
have implemented digital technologies better than public sector banks. The future course for
banking sector has been analysed and some new features have been recommended which would
help both banks as well as consumers can utilize technology to full potential for maximum
benefit.
3. 1. INTRODUCTION
The world around us is changing at a staggering rate and the key driver of this change is
technology. It has permeated almost every aspect of our life be it travel, food or financial
management. It started with ATM and has now entered from computers to handheld devices like
mobile phones. One thing on which customers are clear though while adopting these innovations
is that they should be simple. Intense competition was the main reason which drove banks to
adopt to these changes. The urge to keep themselves alive and ahead in market, forced banks to
rethink their operational strategy. This led to reinvention and improvement of products and
services by banks in order to make them more profitable and beneficial.
In this project, banking sector and the services it offers and the merging of digital
technology with banking services have been studied. This report discusses why it is important to
digitize banking sector in India and how banks have approached towards it. Along with these, the
latest innovation and technologies which banks have adopted have also been studied. The banks
which have been included in this study are 3 of the largest banks in India and together they serve
more than 1/2 of Indian population availing banking services. In this report, these banks have
also been compared on various metrics to other banks.
As a part of study, work being done at PurpleTalk Inc., in developing digital solutions for
a bank to provide financial aid to its customers has also been included. All the studies done
previously on this subject have also focused on why and how of implementing digitization in the
field of banking study also contains data of valuation of few banks and the services provided by
them using digital technology in order to analyze how introduction of digital technology has
affected the functioning and profitability of these banks.
Fig 1.1
Transition Impact
Maximum impact of digitization in banking operations has been on:
Internal Accounting System
Traditional Banking:
Personalized services,
time consuming, limited
access
Digital Banking:
Real-time services,
integrated platform, all
time access
4. With automation of banks, internal accounting system has put both employees &
customers at ease by reducing the volume of paper, speeding up invoices and minimizing
errors. The auditing also gets simplified because all the data is present compiled together
at fingertips.
Customer Service
Customers no longer need to stand in queues or wait for banks to do any transactions.
Now they can perform everything at anytime from anywhere according to their
convenience.
Diversification of System
Using technologies, banks can now provide many other services apart from simple
transactions, money lending, etc. Now they have diversified their offerings.
Need for this Study
Advancement in technology has affected every aspect of life and people expect them to
be present in the services they receive too, that’s why digitization needs to be promoted. It is
very important to understand the effect of merging technology with banking services in order to
determine the approach to be taken for getting maximum mutual benefit. In this study, how
digital service providers taking a practical example from [x]CubeLabs,
Objectives
To study the digital innovations taking place in Banking Sector.
Studying the before and after effects of digitization, on banks.
Compare different leading banks on the basis of their implementation of these
innovations.
Learn how an app for a financial institution is developed.
Study the future course of action in Digital improvisation in banking sector.
Scope of the Study
The sources are realistic and data were collected from financial reports of banks.
The information collected about banks extend over a period of 15 years i.e. from the time
IT act was enacted in India to present day.
5. Methodology / Action Plan
Understanding the banking sector and various services it offers to customers.
The project covers banking sector especially in India and how digital innovations are
impacting their market share and customer base. This will include following details:
- Analysis of financial statement of banks.
- Studying various digital technologies being implemented.
- The working of these digital technologies and how they are benefitting.
Statistical and numerical analysis tools will also be used to draw a comparison between
the banks based in various aspects like net asset value, growth rate, implementation of
technologies.
Limitations of the Project
Most of the studies conducted so far on the impact of digital innovations in banking have
been in urban areas and India is predominantly a village based nation.
Reports available mainly discuss the developed countries while India is a developing
nation.
In India, digital banking is a relatively new concept which has picked up pace only in last
3-4 years, so, lack of data.
It is difficult to predict the future for banks based on their current situation because of
rapid technological changes especially in terms of social banking (merging social
networks with banking)
This report has been divided into ___ chapters. Chapter 2 discusses about PurpleTalk, its
working and services it provides. Chapter 3 then takes on Banking in India. In chapter 4 digital banking
system has been discussed. Further chapters talk about learning and finding during internship with
Chapter 5 comparing digital and traditional banking systems and advantages of digital banking. Next 3
chapters describe HDFC, ICICI and SBI respectively on the basis of their products and services. In
Chapter 9, comparison has been made between the 3 banks based on the difference in their
implementation methodology. In the later part of the report, the app development at [x]cubeLabs has
been described along with recommendation of future roadmap.