Champion Channels during Lockdown
BFSI companies have used different channels during the lockdown to provide better services to their customers and among them some of the channels have become the champion channels for them.
Says Rathish of Federal Bank: “All our digital transaction channels have witnessed a surge i n volumes with Corporate Fed Mobile, our mobile banking application that caters to transactional needs of our SME and corporate customers is leading the show.”
Muthoot Finance has online platforms Muthoot Webpay and iMuthoot mobile app for loan and interest repayment. The app has customer centric features like pre and part-payment facility, partrelease facility, waivers, etc, which have eased the pressure on its borrowers. “Internet banking of major banks and all PPI channels are integrated to our digital channels and is functioning flawless for the past 2 years,” adds Alexander Muthoot.
Following the lockdown, movement of the teams of Fino Payments Bank was limited and there was rise in the use of the bank’s wallet Bpay. Himanshu gives details about the change in preferences among the c ustomers: “After the announcement of money deposit in to the Mahila Jan Dhan account, there was rise in the micro-ATM withdrawals – the extent of 40%. People were afraid to go to their bank branches as the branches were far from their homes and they preferred our customer service points for withdrawals.”
Specifically, in the context of SME lending, the loan onboarding process is likely to see massive shifts. Given that the practice of social distancing will remain in the foreseeable future, organizations will feel the need to centralize many last mile physical processes. Several of these processes also require regulatory sponsorship –such as KYC, signing of legal agreements, collecting repayment instructions, payments and on-site verifications.
Kotak Mahindra Bank sees that videobased communication has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the lockdown. U GRO Capital has started seeing the relaxation of norms. For instance, video KYC is now allowed. There are solutions for electronic agreements and e-NACH is coming back.
Magma SME Business is paperless in terms of file processing and the company is now looking for ward to online acquisition channels and integration with various APIs.
A major part of SME lending is the process of personal discussion, wherein a credit manager would visit the customer premises for a face to face discussion and physical inspection of the facilities. Anuj speaks about the crucial change: “Digitizing many of these steps will require the use of wide sources of alternate data, advanced algorithms and AI/ML systems for facial recognition, object identification, etc. We at U GRO Capital have initiated work on digitizing the PD process and this will be a revolutionary development in the loan on-boarding process.”