HDFC Bank presents #UntoldStories | Episode 1 feat. Bhavesh Zaveri

Without exception, people who come to office and people who don't come to office—I know for sure a lot of hard work is happening working from home—but the point is that whether it's from home or from office, the whole machinery is working at a bank level because of the effort by each one of the team members across every vertical. Specific to operations, it's a very, very unprecedented situation, and the primary driver would be two parts. One, we genuinely do not have a situation where operations can do work from home in the present scenario. All applications are very critical, and we work on core banking applications. So we have people who drive this broadly; they are in office most of the days and trying to lead from the front on a day-to-day basis. I think so. Volumes are low, but there are some aspects which are mission critical. For example, ATM servicing. Right now, our customers would need our ATMs to be functioning, so the currency chest teams have been working very diligently. On the rest of the business area, gradually volumes have been reducing, but there are volumes. Even if it's down to say 40 or 50 from the peak, it's still significant volume for our size of the bank. This is the volume we have called them to office. We have ensured that no time is compromised. So our employees are not only in contact with customers, they are also in contact with their families. So what are the special precautions we are taking? First, we make sure at any point of time, whether it's a bank staff or an HDB or a contract staff, we would take ownership and responsibility for all three teams, because eventually all three combined work together and make this operations thing work. Secondly, we ensure we identify how many people we need to come to office, because in some centers commute was not so difficult, but if the volumes are not much, then we were very, very particular that we educate the staff on social distancing. So we have taken all precautions. It's really something we are extremely conscious and will continue to be conscious about for a reasonably long time.

On the 27th, the circular was released. So first six or seven days, the learning was very, very strong, I think so. That helped in terms of then when the documents got signed, when we got all these notes approved, the framework, the structure, the nuances, and the permutation combination, we all had a fairly good idea of what changes we have to do in our system. So we were able to articulate very well what the monitoring requirement is, and obviously then the testing got done, and then gradually all the products got implemented. First, we were able to implement the EMI loans. So today, more than 30 or 35 lakh EMI loans we have processed through it. So two parts: one is getting the credit into their account. I think so from the journey, we have today the electronic platforms. I really will pay the money from government to the final beneficiary, from a corporate to their staff or vendors. Practically, it can happen in hours time, you know, it's so fast, so well-oiled, so well-greased. And the second leg comes, I think so, making sure the account of the beneficiary gets credited irrespective of who is the remitter—whether it's a government, whether it's a panchayat, whether it's a mandi, whether it's a bani wanting to make electronic payment. I think so the opportunity available: UPI, person-to-person transfer, making payment to any merchant, P2M payments using QR code, using net or mobile banking to pay a merchant on e-commerce site. Again, I think so it's hugely increased 24x7. On the cash side, they have to go to ATM. The currency gets loaded every day, so generally the cycle of currency works. The Government of India has presses which print currency across four centers across India. They distribute to their own office first. There are issue departments of RBI, about 20 of them. Through our CIT agencies, we distribute the cash to branches for every process.

Yeah, good question. I think so, very important question. So first two weeks, I think so we were also a little kind of getting our act together to make sure that we identify areas which were significantly impacted to fix. The impact came when we were a little dependent on the outside agency, and then we have put resources within the bank scheme of things, cutting down the reliance on the BPOs. But when the working was within the operation and the bank stops doing more things, I think so we were able to bounce back. A lot of places we have discovered newer ways of doing things. Something that was taking us perhaps a few days is now taking us a few hours. Do you think a lot of these learnings will bring back and maybe this year? So here, one big learning I think so I'll take is that we always had this thought process of digital fulfillment for our customers. I think so, using other, using our existing KYC of our customers—a customer already has a savings account, current account with us. If he wants a PL or a credit card, there are occasions, opportunities, or areas where we do a KYC for them. So I think so when we have done some of these digital learnings, we realized that there was this last mile where we should have done a better job, and I think so the team again has worked for us to help identify these gaps.

I think so some learning has been there on the BCP. It's about 170 people, and there was nothing we could do. So we were able to run that operations out of Mumbai, Delhi, and Calcutta. So BCP was activated. The learning was that you shouldn't have a BCP at city level, at a premise level. But maybe I can take a pause and request Bindu to add a couple of bits on two parts: one is the other team making sure the old machinery works day in and day out, and maybe a couple of learnings.

Depends on my team. I mean, I think so the intensity at which these interactions are going to change is very much sure. And also the tools—it may no more be only a con call. We'll have video connect, which will play a big role. We'll have possibly WhatsApp video coming into a good role. So I think even the tools of communication have become far more flexible and useful from a user group community perspective.

I think so a lot of work will go on two big areas. One is the digital journey for the customer, because more as an offsite BTG combined, what we can do along with business. And second one is, I think so, this whole learning of staff hygiene and social responsibility. In this area, we as a bank can contribute a lot in that space in the community.