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Riding into 2025 on Personalization, Self-Service & AI

Sujit K Shakya, Senior Deputy CEO at Nabil Bank and M. Khorshed Anowar, Deputy Managing Director & Head of Retail & SME Banking at Eastern Bank share their respective bank’s goals for 2025 and the route to achieving them:

Ravi Lalwani: The BFSI sector is rapidly shifting toward more personalized and digital-first financial services. What specific advancements or strategic changes does your organization plan to implement by 2025 to meet evolving market expectations? Are there particular markets where you aim to expand your presence or market share?

Sujit K Shakya: Nabil Bank, being one of the leading banks of Nepal, has already established a separate vertical in the name of nBank and has been providing various digital banking services through nBank mobile app in line with the strategic objective of the bank. nBank is conceptually developed like a neo-banking platform with ambitions of creating a pure virtual bank within Nabil Bank. Further, it has recently started the appointment banking services, which is the first of its kind services in Nepal. Nabil bank has always been the pioneer in various innovative services and plans to expand full-fledged digital banking through nBank app without the need of the customer to visit the branches. Apart from account services, digital loans and loans against fixed deposits, the bank plans to expand the nBank platform into SME and retail Loan applications and assessment in the coming year.

The bank also aims to aggressively increase its scope of operations for card and QR merchant business in major tourism markets to enable tourists from all over the world to travel and transact seamlessly. This will enable travel safety and reduce hassles of carrying heavy cash, and also encourage many small businesses in these markets to adopt cashless banking habits, which will ultimately help their access to finance and capital when they need it.

In order to push digital banking habits, the remittance markets are targeted so that workforce remittances can be sent seamlessly to recipients in the country through the nBank app. This also allows the sender to save for the future and create transaction histories for future entrepreneurial efforts as returned migrants later on.

M. Khorshed Anowar: As the financial sector moves toward personalized and digital-first services, EBL is committed to leading this transformation by 2025. At the heart of our strategy is EBL Skybanking app, designed to be a smart companion that makes banking simple, secure, and convenient. Our focus is on creating a simplified and engaging onboarding process, allowing customers to start banking effortlessly. By enhancing the digitization of our services, we are significantly reducing service processing times, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction. Our self-service banking solutions empower customers to manage their finances independently, anytime, anywhere.

We are also expanding our ecosystem by integrating with more billers and mobile financial services (MFS), offering customers a wider range of payment and transaction options. Additionally, we’re introducing AI-powered digital solutions tailored to meet the needs of Gen Z, millennial, and underserved communities. With a strong focus on ICT security, we ensure that every interaction is safe and reliable. By driving innovation and prioritizing financial inclusion, EBL is simplifying banking for everyone and setting new standards to lead the payment industry into the future.

As you set financial goals for 2025, could you share specific targets, such as revenue growth, customer acquisition metrics, or cost efficiency ratios? How do you plan to leverage key market segments – like real estate, SMEs, or agriculturists – to reach these milestones?

Sujit: The bank is already moving ahead with its financial targets for the fiscal year 24-25 based on the existing 5-year strategy – Nabil 2025 – and has been working for the next 5 years strategy for 2030. Current focus is to increase the granular base such of retail deposits, especially current and saving, retail loan and SME loans under regulatory retail portfolio, and priority sector loans such as hydropower, agriculture and SME loans below Rs20 million. Despite the current challenges in the industry where there is a threat in maintaining the asset quality, the bank has envisaged to grab the 10% incremental market share in business volume/numbers, driving customer acquisition through digital and physical footprints. For achieving priority sector targets, bank has established the separate cell for each focus areas, which has been working in enhancing the customer acquisition through various marketing activities as well as strategic tie-ups.

Khorshed: For 2025, EBL’s financial goals are aligned with our broader mission of innovation, inclusion, and sustainability. We aim to drive meaningful engagement across key market segments while enhancing revenue, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. In the real estate sector, we plan to enhance accessibility to financing solutions that cater to homebuyers, developers, and infrastructure projects, helping to meet growing demand. For SMEs, we aim to become a trusted partner by delivering comprehensive financial packages, including credit facilities, digital transaction tools, and business advisory services to support their journey toward growth and innovation. In the agricultural sector, we are introducing customized solutions that address seasonal cash flow needs and offer digital tools to simplify financial management for farmers and rural entrepreneurs. By addressing the unique needs of these sectors, we aim to deepen our market presence and contribute to economic development. Additionally, we continue to integrate sustainable practices and advanced technologies, ensuring that our progress aligns with long-term value creation for our stakeholders.

Given the rapid digital transformation in BFSI, can you specify which technology initiatives (e.g., AI for underwriting, blockchain for secure transactions, or real-time data analytics) you plan to prioritize by 2025? What are your key milestones, and how do you plan to measure ROI in terms of operational efficiency or customer satisfaction?

Sujit: To align with the rapid digital transformation in BFIs, Nabil Bank has been adopting various digital platforms for lead generation, process automation and secured transactions. Nabil Bank was already the pioneer in the digital loan services through foneloan to various customer/segment and has plans to enhance the products and services in the coming year too. We have already started AI in few of the banking services and have been exploring to increase the use of AI in other services including credit underwriting and credit monitoring. We have been using the business intelligence software for the real time data analytics and generating various reports/MIS for effective use. To measure the customer satisfaction, are using various techniques such as feedback recording, mystery shopping, and customer survey along with identifying the service star in each cluster/department. The bank is also planning to introduce the customer loyalty point redemption mechanism that will help to measure the customer transaction and satisfaction.

Khorshed: EBL is embracing digital transformation to meet evolving customer needs. By 2025, we are focusing on AI-driven financial services enabling personalized, data-driven decisions that benefit customers; NFC for faster and secure payments, RPA for streamlined operations, and IoT for real-time service improvements. These initiatives will enhance service quality and operational efficiency. To measure success, we’ll track customer satisfaction, service delivery times, and cost optimization, ensuring our technology investments create a seamless, satisfying banking experience while solidifying EBL’s leadership in digital banking.

With customers increasingly seeking personalized, on-demand financial services, what innovative solutions or digital experiences (e.g., self-service portals, virtual assistance, or app-based financial planning tools) are in the pipeline to enhance customer experience by 2025? What metrics will you use to assess the success of these initiatives?

Sujit: Nabil Bank plans to roll out more self-service modalities like cash deposit machines, add features on its nBank app and also start actively to incorporate in AI solutions for better efficiency internally and service delivery externally. For more personalized experiences, the bank is in the phase of review of the CRM software. All these initiatives are expected to bring in higher customer loyalty, better service delivery and internal cost efficiencies.

Khorshed: To meet the growing demand for personalized, on-demand financial services, we are dedicated to introducing innovative digital solutions that enhance convenience and accessibility for our customers. Our focus is on empowering customers to have greater control over their financial activities while ensuring seamless support whenever needed. We have already fully digitized the onboarding process through platforms like the EBL Skybanking app and the EBL Self-Service Portal, allowing even non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) customers to easily access our services. Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to expand the range of self-service options available on the EBL Skybanking app, further enhancing the customer experience. The success of these initiatives will be measured by tracking user engagement, customer satisfaction, and the overall impact on service interactions, ensuring that our solutions not only meet but exceed customer expectations.

As cybersecurity threats escalate, how is your organization strengthening its defense mechanisms? Do you plan to invest in specific technologies (like zero-trust architecture or AI-based threat detection) or achieve industry certifications by 2025? Could you also share any KPIs related to data breach reduction or customer data protection?

Sujit: With the increasing digital transaction, there is the immense threat of cybersecurity in the banking industry. Every day we hear about fraudulent transaction in various banks with new methods and mechanism. We have already enabled various secured firewalls for protecting the banking software from the malwares and have a mechanism of 24×7 surveillance of the cybersecurity threat with periodic security testing, continuous security monitoring and strong policies and procedures of international standards. The bank has been strengthening its defense mechanism and has already started investing in zero trust architecture and AI based threat detection. The bank also plans to invest further in required technology for enhancing the customer data protection, which shall be measured by the increased number of cyberattack/spam/malware attack recorded by the defense mechanism. By 2025, the bank is planning to have ISO certification also.

Khorshed: At EBL, we’re fully dedicated to enhancing our cybersecurity measures to stay ahead of the increasing digital threats we face today. We conduct regular Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Testing (VAPT) to identify and fix any vulnerabilities in our systems. To stay constantly alert and proactive, we use advanced tools like Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems and Dark Web Monitoring, which help us detect and respond to potential threats as they arise. We’ve also put in place robust network security controls and endpoint protection, including encryption and strong authentication, to protect sensitive customer data. We’re proud to have achieved ISO 27001 certification and maintained PCI-DSS certification for 7 consecutive years, reaffirming our commitment to keeping our systems secure. Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to invest in AI-driven threat detection and explore the possibility of adopting zero-trust architecture to further enhance our security framework. Our main goals are to minimize data breaches to almost zero, ensure all customer data is fully encrypted, and speed up our response to security incidents. These efforts reflect our ongoing dedication to safeguarding customer trust and ensuring the highest levels of protection in an ever-evolving digital landscape.


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