Tag: Mr. Parag Rao

Business

HDFC Bank issues record high of over 4 lakh cards post embargo

Oct 1, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Consumer Finance, #Digital Banking & IT, #Group Head – Payments, #HDFC Bank, #Mr. Parag Rao

HDFC BankMumbai: HDFC Bank announced a record of over 4 lakh credit cards issued since the embargo being lifted. The record issuance is as of September 21, 2021 and marks the aggressive growth path the Bank has charted post the embargo to re-invent and co-create its credit cards portfolio with strong products and partnerships.

The bank also announced the relaunch of 3 cards. HDFC Bank’s Millennia, MoneyBack+ and Freedom cards have been reinvented to put more power into the hands of the customers, by adding a host of new features and benefits. Creating and co-creating new card products is part of the Bank’s strategy to straddle every customer segment; be it for Bharat or India.

“As a leader in the cards space, we promised, we’d be back with a bang. We are now pushing the pedal not only to acquire new customers, but also to enhance offerings of our existing cards,” said Mr Parag Rao, Group Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Bank.

“Our strategy to re-invent, create and co-create has been crafted based on the analysis of customers’ buying behaviour, the categories they spend on and the spend patterns. The months that we have spent readying and sharpening our strategy are now bearing fruit. We are ready to unveil best in class offerings and experience to our customers, just in time for festive season.”

The new card variants will be available to customers in October’21. Existing Freedom and Millennia card holders will also be able to enjoy the new benefits as well and will be notified by the bank regarding the same.

The revamped portfolio includes:

Freedom Credit Card – Best Card For Your Everyday Spends & BIG Purchases

The Freedom card is targeted majorly towards the youth who are starting their career. It will also cater to segment that has a greater need for credit allowing them to utilise credit for their large spends in a very affordable yet highly rewarding manner.

Key benefits:

Rewarding Affordability – 5X Cashpoints on EMI spends at merchant locations
Interest Rate of just 0.99% for 1st 90 days from card issuance date

MoneyBack+ Credit Card – The most rewarding card for everyday spends

The MoneyBack+ credit card is targeted towards middle class families who are seek value on their everyday spends. These consumers are careful spenders so HDFC Bank is offering value for every rupee spent by them.

Key benefits:

10X Cashpoints on 5 key merchants – Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart, Reliance Smart Superstore & Swiggy
5X Cashpoints on EMI spends at merchant locations

Millennia – Best Cashback Credit Card

The Millennia card is targeted at the affluent, tech savvy consumer. It is for people in the age range of 25 – 40 years. The new avatar of the card will cover all the areas millennials are passionate about such as shopping, dining, entertainment & travel.

Key benefits:

5% Cashback on your 10 key merchants – Amazon, BookMyShow, Cult.fit, Flipkart, Myntra, Sony LIV, Swiggy, Tata CLiQ, Uber & Zomato
1% Cashback on other spends including EMI spends & Wallet Loads (except Fuel)

Business, News

HDFC Bank aims to regain credit card market share in 3-4 quarters

Aug 23, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Consumer Finance, #Digital Banking & IT, #Group Head – Payments, #HDFC Bank, #Mr. Parag Rao

Mumbai: HDFC Bank, India’s largest credit card issuer, today announced that it is aiming to add five lakh new credit cards to its portfolio every month beginning February 2022. This will enable it to regain its market share and cement its leadership position in the credit card issuing business in the next 9 to 12 months.

HDFC Bank has over 20 initiatives that will hit the market in the next 6 to 9 months to drive this growth. These include the launch of new co-branded cards with the who’s who of Corporate India spanning pharma, travel, FMCG, hospitality, telecom and fintech. The bank has also revamped its existing range of cards over the past 9 months and is also ready with strategic partnerships with new companies.

The new and enhanced suite of credit card products will have something for everyone from the mass market to the ultra-premium segments. There will be tailored products for customers to meet their evolving needs.

“The last few months have been spent in readying ourselves for the future. When the restrictions from the regulator were in place, we utilised the time to chalk out a new strategy. With our new offerings as well as our existing suite of cards, we are confident of meeting the needs of our customers and ‘come back with a bang’.” said Mr Parag Rao, Group Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Bank.

HDFC Bank is the leading player in the payments ecosystem with a strong share in both credit card issuing and acquiring businesses. The bank is the country’s largest credit card issuer, and it has maintained its leadership position over the past 8 months, demonstrating the strength and resilience of the card portfolio.

Some key RBI data points that further showcase this strength include:

• HDFC Bank Credit cards spends are 1.5 times higher than the nearest competitor
• HDFC Bank has 1.2 times higher number of cards than the nearest competitor
PRESS NOTE HDFC Bank Ltd.
HDFC Bank House,
Senapati Bapat Marg,
Lower Parel,
Mumbai – 400 013.
CIN: L65920MH1994PLC080618

• HDFC Bank Credit spend per card is the highest among Top 6 banks (in terms of CIF & spends)

The bank also has a dominant position in the merchant acquiring space.

• As per RBI data, HDFC Bank consistently has the highest overall market share in merchant acquiring business. As of June 2021 the bank had 47.9% of the total market share.

• The best book quality as per franchisee data – the highest through-put per merchant

• Its SmartHub platform is an integrated banking and payments range tailor-made for all merchant categories and size

HDFC Bank has about 3.67 crore debit cards, 1.48 crore credit cards and about 21.34 lakh acceptance points, making it among the largest facilitators of cashless payments in the country. With over 5.1 crore credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards addressing every market segment, every third rupee spent on cards in India happens on HDFC Bank cards. It has played a significant role over the years in spurring India’s consumption story. The coming festive season will help it play this role better at a time when it is perhaps needed as never before.

Business World, News

HDFC Bank creates Digital and Enterprise factories to enhance Digital Banking experience

Jun 23, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Consumer Finance, #Digital Banking & IT, #Group Head – Payments, #HDFC Bank, #Mr. Parag Rao

HDFC Bank creates Digital and Enterprise factories to enhance Digital Banking experienceMumbai: HDFC Bank today announced that it is setting up a Digital Factory and an Enterprise Factory to roll-out new digital products and services in the future and augment its IT Infrastructure. The Digital and Enterprise factories will be pivoted on APIs, data and cloud.

The dual approach of building the Digital Factory along with an Enterprise Factory is part of the bank’s technology transformation agenda to run and transform the bank. The bank proposes to strengthen capabilities for the Digital and the Enterprise Factories by hiring up to 500 people over the next two years, from diverse backgrounds such as data analytics, AI, ML, Design Thinking, Cloud and DevOps.

The Digital Factory will build new business and new solutions riding on new tech stacks/applications and high resiliency and monitoring capabilities. This will be backed by the ability to support large volume growth and plan for upgrading technologies. The bank is also developing future-ready IP technologies and moving to a native cloud architecture in collaboration with niche technology companies, fintech and large IT companies. Ensuring reliability, availability, scalability and security will be at the core of the Digital Factory’s endeavours.

The Enterprise Factory will upgrade legacy infrastructure, decouple existing systems and build its own capabilities by embracing open-source to build resilience and scale.

“The Digital and Enterprise Factories will help us realise the strategy of ‘running’ the bank, while ‘building’ the bank for the future,” Mr. Parag Rao, Group Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Bank. “We are poised to capitalize on opportunities that higher digital adoption will bring in India.

Our endeavour is to provide seamless experience to our customers across all platforms, on the back of resilient infrastructure. Since inception, we have led the digital transformation of the Indian financial services sector and continue to invest in technologies to improve customer experience and enhance efficiencies. This is changing the paradigm by redefining financial services and designing products and services by always keeping the customer at the centre.’’

Business World

HDFC Bank launches SmartHub Merchant Solutions 3.0

Nov 11, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #HDFC Bank, #merchants, #Mr. Parag Rao, #self-employed professionals, #SmartHub 3.0, #SmartHub Merchant Solutions 3.0, #TR Ramachandran

HDFC Bank today announced the launch of India’s first comprehensive banking and payment solution for merchants – SmartHub Merchant Solutions 3.0. This first-of-its-kind solution allows merchants and self-employed professionals to instantly open a current account and start accepting payments in-store, online, and on-the-go.

The comprehensive merchant solution will enable the Bank to reach out to more than 20 million small & medium merchants and also professional services like doctors, pharmacies, salons and laundry services across the metro, semi-urban and rural India in the next 3 years.

The merchant solution was launched at a virtual event held in Mumbai by Mr Parag Rao, Country Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Marketing and Digital Banking at HDFC Bank along with Mr T R Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa.

For the merchants, SmartHub 3.0 will be available in multiple forms – app-based, web-based and also a range of PoS devices. The comprehensive solution will enable efficiencies in the business for them. For example, features like digitizing Khata, enabling collection reminders, inventory management, billing software and lending to merchants’ basis their banking history.

Click here to join SmartHub 3.0 – https://hdfcbank.com/smarthub

To know more, watch a video on SmartHub 3.0 by clicking here: https://youtu.be/r5Xtabl-sHo

Key features of SmartHub Merchant Solutions 3.0 include:

  1. Instant account opening and merchant setup
  2. Payment collection through any mode – Bharat QR code, Aadhaar Pay, UPI, SMS Pay, Credit or Debit Cards, or any app such as Payzapp, Google Pay
  3. Customise interface in 9 languages
  4. Share product catalogue with customers via SMS, email or Whatsapp
  5. View and apply for loan and credit card offers
  6. Single dashboard view of payments and dues across locations
  7. Segment specific Value Added services like inventory management for grocery merchants, EMI for Electronic merchants, billing, inventory and reminders for pharmaceutical merchants to name a few
  8. Merchants can also create their own customer loyalty program on this solution. They can run their own ‘discounts and offers’ for their customers.

“Small and medium businesses are the backbone of our economy. We are delighted to launch SmartHub 3.0 for them,” said Mr Parag Rao, Country Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and Marketing. “To further deepen the penetration of digital forms of payment across India, it is important that the merchant network is empowered with the best range of solutions. Greater adoption of digital platforms by small and medium businesses is a critical step in achieving the objective of Digital India. We embarked on this journey 18 months ago and have enhanced our offering based on feedback from our merchant network. SmartHub 3.0 is a comprehensive digital platform solution that we believe will fulfil every need of a merchant or a professional service; be it in large metros or rural areas.”

“We are delighted to partner HDFC Bank in pursuing our shared objective of expanding the digital acceptance footprint across India. SmartHub 3.0 offers the ideal platform for small merchants and self-employed professionals to join the digital ecosystem through an easy, convenient and secure solution. It allows users to accept payments in multiple forms, including QR and our newly launched tap to phone solution, allowing millions of merchants to offer a superior customer experience and grow the business,” said TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India & South Asia, Visa.

HDFC Bank is the leading player in the merchant acquiring space in the country. It processes 48% of the overall card transactions at merchant level in terms of volumes and about a fourth through UPI (Unified Payments Interface).

Business World

HDFC Bank launches ‘Festive Treats’ 2.0 with 1000+ offers

Oct 1, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Festive Treats’ 2.0, #HDFC Bank, #Mr. Aditya Puri, #Mr. Parag Rao

Mumbai, September 30, 2020: After the resounding success of the 1st edition, HDFC Bank today launched ‘Festive Treats’ its annual financial services dhamaka. Customers can avail of special deals on all banking products from loans to bank accounts, with over 1000+ offers from leading players and over 2,000 hyper-local offers through tie-ups with local merchants across semi-urban and rural locations.

In light of the unprecedented situation due to Covid19, all deals and offers this year can also be availed of digitally from the safety customers’ homes, in addition to over the counter at branches, partner stores and dealerships.

On the heels of its Summer Treats festival, the bank expects mobiles, consumer durable, and electronics categories to do well in addition to apparels, jewellery and dining-in due to the festive season.

Offers will be available across the entire range of financial solutions for retail as well as business customers with discounts on processing fee on loans, reduced EMIs, cashback, gift vouchers and more benefits.

HDFC Bank has also tied up with retail brands to offer discounts, cashback and extra reward points on both in-store and online purchases. Online majors such as Amazon, TataCliq, Myntra, Pepperfry, Swiggy and Grofers will offer special deals during this time. Leading retail and consumer brands like Lifestyle, Bata, Monte Carlo. Vijay Sales, Kohinoor, GRT, ORRA are a few big names that will offer up to between 5% to 15% cashback on various products and services.

With 53 per cent of branches in semi-urban and rural areas, the bank plans to take this offering to the most remote corners of the country. It has tied up with hyperlocal stores and kiranas to line up over 2000+ offers at the regional level The national campaign was launched digitally by Mr. Parag Rao, Country Head – Payment Business, Merchant Acquiring Services and Marketing, HDFC Bank. Mr. Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank graced the occasion.

While there are a vast number of offers available through the Festive Treats Campaign, here are a few illustrative benefits:

• On all Apple products including the newest launches, HDFC Bank Customers can avail cashback of up to Rs 7000.
• A shopper can avail of cashback of up to 22.5% and convert their purchases into a no extra cost EMI on leading brands such as Samsung, LG, Sony, Godrej and Panasonic.
• The Bank is offering 50% off on the processing fees on auto loans, personal loans and business growth loans and zero processing fee on two-wheeler loans.

“Consumers have held back on purchases during the lockdown and there is a lot of pent up demand that has built up in the system,” said Mr. Parag Rao, Country Head – Payment Business, Merchant Acquiring Services and Marketing, HDFC Bank. “In the past 2-3 months, we have seen renewed customer interest and buying patterns. We see this continuing through the festive season as well. It’s our endeavour that no matter what the dream, with HDFC Bank money should not be a constraint for our customers. We’re therefore bringing together a never before seen range of 1000+ offers across brands and across all our banking products in one place. We are confident that we’ll fulfil every dream of our customers through Festive Treats.”

Speaking at the launch of Festive Treats, Mr. Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank said, “These are unprecedented times. What we have witnessed is that even during this period the people of our country have shown courage and resilience. The launch of #FestiveTreats is our effort to celebrate this spirit of India. Post lockdown we are seeing green shoots. We want to create positivity and boost consumption. We want to be there for our customers and ensure that they have everything they need to meet their demands this year. #HumHaarNahiMaanenge”