Axis Bank bets on Aadhar, mobile apps to expand digital transactions

Digital currently makes up 70% of bank's overall transactions; branch banking makes up 12%

Axis Bank, the country’s third largest private sector lender, is looking to expand the scale of its digital transactions. Such transactions currently make up 70 per cent of the bank’s overall transactions compared to branch banking which accounts for only 12 per cent.

“Our intent is to increase the volume of digital transactions. People are getting used to it and it is on us how we intensify the digital operations. At present, digital transactions contribute around 70 per cent to our total transactions and we see lot of opportunities in this space driven by Aadhar-enabled payments and mobile app based banking”, said Sidharth Rath, group executive (corporate relationship group and transaction banking).

Mobile banking transactions of Axis Bank surged 140 per cent while internet banking moved up 36 per cent in last fiscal, largely due to demonetisation that significantly suck cash out of the system.

“All our customers are digitally enabled. Digital transactions are growing 50 per cent year-on-year. Last fiscal, digital transactions grew exponentially because of demonetisation,” Rath said.

In its earnings presentation, Axis Bank said its digital financial transactions grew 66 per cent for the quarter ended March 31, 2017. The transaction volume on the digital channels rose 87 per cent in this quarter whereas ATM transactions tumbled 17 per cent. The bank’s mobile banking transactions volume spiked 54 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) and mobile banking spends were up 76 per cent y-o-y.

The bank continued its transactions and payments business momentum with card spends (credit cards and debit cards) rising 87 per cent y-o-y in Q4 of last fiscal. The bank has a strong positioning in the payments space with a share of 10.9 per cent in credit cards, 4.9 per cent in debit cards, 44 per cent in forex cards and 17.7 per cent in merchant acquisition.