India-based Equitas Small Finance Bank has partnered with IBM Consulting to design and develop a cloud-native secure digital banking platform to provide the lender’s customers and partners with a modern and highly secure experience.
As Equitas transforms its business for a digital-first generation, the partnership is expected to strengthen the bank’s portfolio of digital goods and services.
Through the collaboration with IBM Consulting, the Indian small finance bank aims to commence a high-speed path to utilise technology as a differentiator in its next stage of growth.
Established in 1993, Equitas is said to be a new-age bank that delivers a suite of products and services customised to address the needs of its customers.
The small finance bank’s customers include individuals with limited access to formal financing channels along with affluent and mass affluent, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and corporates.
Equitas intends to start its modernisation journey with a cloud-native platform architecture that is in line with the bank’s business plan as part of the next growth phase.
Equitas Small Finance Bank chief information officer Narayanan Easwaran said: “Equitas SFB as part of its ongoing digital transformation program would be focusing on customer experience by leveraging data and analytics to drive omni channel engagement and enable a platform-driven ecosystem to make the experience of banking and finance more personalized and empowering.
“The bank’s delivery model would be highly product-centric moving away from traditional Program Management methodologies to Agile frameworks for the various channels including mobile. This partnership with IBM is just the first step towards engaging customers.”
Through the partnership, Equitas seeks to adopt a cloud native architecture, enabling digital channels and applications to securely operate across any technology environment.
It is expected to enhance the bank’s operational efficiency and improve adherence to industry regulatory compliance requirements as well as enforce higher levels of security.
As part of the collaboration, IBM Consulting will create and implement modern web and admin interfaces for retail banking and corporate banking and multi-device banking apps for retail banking.
IBM Consulting India/ South Asia country managing partner Kamal Singhani said: “Evolving consumer demands have made digitization the need of the hour, especially for the financial services sector, as it scales to newer customer-centric business models.
“We’re excited to be the consulting partner and technology collaborator of Equitas in its next growth phase. We are leveraging the deep banking industry expertise coupled with digital experience and cloud capabilities of IBM Consulting to design a modern platform to support Equitas Bank’s digital journey for its customers.”
