HDFC Bank partners top education institutes for fintech ideas

In a first of its kind efforts in the domestic banking sector, second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank today said it will be partnering with 50 technology and business schools to tap into emerging fintech ideas.
It announced a tie-up with IIT-Bombay and IIT-Roorkee as part of the industry-academia partnership effort.
"The objective is to identify potential fintech ideas at incubation and entrepreneurship cells in these institutes at a nascent stage, and help them evolve into a consumer-ready product," it said in a statement.
The statement added that in the first phase of the initiative, 50 such partnerships are envisaged. The bank will use its domain expertise to mentor start-ups on customer experience, reduce time to market and costs.

The start-ups will get the banks platform to test their ideas in the real world, in addition to expert insights, and knowledge, it said.
"Weve always believed exchange of ideas and knowledge breeds culture of innovation. The CODE Industry Academia is another major step in that direction, and will take the culture of innovation in the country to the next level," the bank's country head for digital banking Nitin Chugh said.