Polaris thinks 'digital wave' will drive banks big time

Citing a forecast of over USD 50 billion spend on digital transformation by banks, financial technology company Polaris today said it expects 'the digital wave' to drive its growth.
The company has identified four areas -- digital banking, payments, data and analytics, risk and compliance as 'four big bets', Jitin Goyal from Polaris Consulting and Services said at the 22nd annual general meeting here.
"These four areas are expected to receive over 80 per cent of the banking industry's technology investment spend over the next four years because they are incredibly central to our client's digital transformation strategy," he said.

He added that analysts are quoting a figure of over USD 50 billion spend on digital transformation by banks this year alone. "Gartner has forecast that by 2015, 25 per cent of businesses will employ a Chief Digital Officer... Thus, the digital wave would be the largest disruptor (or opportunity) on the financial spectrum," he said.
Observing that the company managed to maintain revenues and sustain margin levels last financial year despite "restructuring" exercises, he said: "We were able to add 24 new clients and this has energised the organisation and validated our core digital strategy."
"The big achievement of 24 client acquisitions in a difficult year has been shadowed by the erosion of business in a few accounts owing to both vendor consolidation initiatives as well as our own decision to exit non-strategic, non-profitable relationships," he said.

For 2014-15, Polaris registered revenues at Rs 1,894 crore, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) at Rs 225 crore and profit after tax at Rs 167 crore.
"The green shoots of growth are now clearly visible... We have taken big bold steps that would help Polaris take its rightful place of leadership in a digital world," Goyal added.