How HDFC recast systems to offer loan approval, disbursement in 10 seconds

The exercise involved an intense effort with most senior managers working without a break between September 2014-February 2015

In the initial stage of the digital journey, the target was the urban market but later HDFC Bank decided to attack the semi-urban and rural pockets as well. Behind all these, the objective was to expand the business and bust the myth of the so-called base effect, which slows down a big bank’s growth rate. 

The bank’s employees took a while to understand what Aditya Puri wanted. When the boss told them to bring down the cost-to-revenue by 5 percentage points, the team came back with an estimate of 0.25 per cent. But Aditya wasn’t looking for a marginal change