RBL Bank: A remarkable credit card journey
Bikram Yadav, business head - Credit Cards at RBL Bank outlines the achievements and the enabling strategy:
Mehul Dani: How did you achieve the growth in total number of credit cards issued by your bank in the current FY so far?
Bikram Yadav: RBL Bank acquired a boutique business of 40,000 credit cards from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2014 marking its foray into credit card business. In a timeframe of 5 years, it has grown to 2.5 million customers and become one of the top 6 credit card issuers in India. In the last 3 years, the business grew its customer base at a CAGR of 119%. This rapid growth has been possible due to various factors: (i) Continuous experimentation – experimentation and staying close to ground reality has been the forte of the business enabling it to come up with novel solutions (ii) Compelling customer value proposition - with customer preferences at the centre, business has always built compelling value proposition to provide maximum value to the customer while making the experience seamless with the help of digital first solutions (iii) Partnership approach – augmenting product value propositions leveraging partner’s strengths has been the secret recipe (iv) Focus on being digital – RBL MyCard mobile app platform, AI-based chat bot, reward and loyalty platform are a few examples of seamless digital experiences the business built for customers (v) State of the art technology – The bank’s investment on mainframe card management system allows processing to be seamless and swift, making it capable of handling millions of transactions with ease.
What are the major changes observed in the usage pattern of credit cards by different customer segments in last 12 months?
The major shift observed in the last 12 months are (i) volume of online transactions is increasing rapidly with eCommerce (ii) revolution in payments industry led to increase in tap-n-pay and eWallet transactions (iii) increasing customer base in tier 2 & 3 centers with growing financial awareness.
We understand that customers’ needs would shift over time. We continuously evaluate the relevance of products with respect to needs of customers and spend patterns and offer them an upgrade option to an improved and higher variant. This has been instrumental in keeping the customers engaged with our products.
Our credit card business is permanently in beta mode, with multiple experiments being conducted at a segment level to understand customer behavior and preferences at ground level. Recently we had launched India’s first 0% forex mark-up travel credit card (World Safari) and the benefits of this credit card can be extended to children by parents through an add-on card.
We have formed various strategic partnerships in the credit card segment and have been associated with some of the best names including Bajaj Finserv, BookMyShow, Paisa Bazaar, ET Money, MoneyTap, etc.
What is the credit card usage for card present transactions now versus 6 months ago and 12 months ago?
Volume of total transactions on RBL Bank Credit Cards has increased by 36% in the last 6 months and by 75% in the last 1 year. Similar trend in visible in card present transactions as well with volume growing up by 37% in last 6 months and 79% in last year.
Please give update about risk and cybersecurity’ initiatives relating to cards.
Our card business has always been vigilant and swift in addressing any irregularities making it one of the most secure credit cards in India. We were the first to introduce switch on/off feature for cards and make it available over the mobile app. All cards are EMV chip and PIN enabled providing global standard security against skimming and counterfeit frauds. We continuously monitor for any anomalies in transactions to protect customers. We insure customers against all transaction frauds where 2FA (OTP/PIN) is not present. We also provide option to switch on/off international transactions on the fly, protecting customers from potential frauds where 2FA is not present.
How far has the loyalty points program been successful in attracting and retaining customers?
Our loyalty program is built around reward points with numerous ways for redemption ranging from flight tickets to eCommerce shopping to mobile recharge. With completely digital journey and simplified redemption process, the loyalty program plays a crucial role in high engagement and retention. The business scaled a milestone of 1 million customers in July 2018 and added 1 million customers by July 2019 making the bank the fastest growing credit card issuer in the country. By the end of FY2019-20, we would easily cross the 2.65 million customer base mark.