About Ramesh Lakshminarayanan
Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, CIO and Group Head of IT at HDFC Bank, has discussed the bank's digital transformation and customer engagement strategy in recent appearances. In a June 2025 conversation, he stated that the bank's digital acquisition rate is upwards of 95-96%, with payment-related servicing at 97-98%. He noted that overall digital servicing stands at about 80% and said the bank aims to raise that figure to 90-95%. Lakshminarayanan emphasized that digital banking includes both assisted and unassisted modes, comparing the process to a security guard helping a first-time ATM user or a granddaughter teaching a grandfather to use a mobile app. He also said that user experience must be designed for both urban and rural customers, cautioning that a "very good looking app" may not suit a rural user.
In a 2022 discussion, Lakshminarayanan described the bank's technology modernization efforts, including rebuilding and rewriting its mobile app using new tech stacks such as Golang and partnering with firms like Google and Aerospike. He said the bank signed an agreement with Microsoft to build a large enterprise data lake on Azure, which he described as the foundation for analytics and personalization. Lakshminarayanan characterized the bank's data strategy as moving from monolithic on-premises data warehouses to cloud data lakes, followed by API-fication and an AI/ML overlay, which he called the "holy grail." He also noted that the bank is modernizing its existing stack while simultaneously building new digital platforms on a completely new architecture.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Ramesh Lakshminarayanan's recent appearances.
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Transcript (2 segments)
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Interviewer0:03
Of course, now you don't have much face-to-face interaction in banks. Most of your banking is done on mobile or internet banking. What kind of percentage do you see for mobile banking right now?
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Ramesh Lakshminarayanan0:16
Mobile penetration is very high today. We have three buckets when you look at any digital engagement: one is acquisition engagement, where you acquire customers digitally; second is you transact; and third is you service the customer. Fundamentally, those are the three things you do in the banking industry. On the acquisition side, we are upwards of 95-96%, very close to 100% digital acquisition. On the servicing side, on the payment side, we are probably 97-98% because payments in India have been disrupted so badly; everybody is digitally doing services. About 80% of services are digital, and that's where we would like to focus and see if we can take that up to upwards of 90-95%, because there is still an India that needs to be serviced through assisted mode. By the way, digital doesn't mean only unassisted mode. I think there is a little bit of clarity needed around that. More and more, assisted models are also there. In life, it's very simple: when you go to the ATM for the first time, you will find the security guard actually assisting you. And when a grandfather buys a new mobile app, you will always find the granddaughter teaching that person. That's how the new India is evolving. It starts with assisted, then over a period of time the customer becomes unassisted. So if you look at all of that, digital penetration is very high in a bank like ours. But at the same time, what goes behind the digital, which you spoke about AI and GenAI, I think that would drive the user experience. There are two or three things that drive the digital experience: one is the user experience, because you need to start thinking like a modern-age fintech, and it need not be only urban-centric. I think we sometimes mistake it, saying a very good-looking, great-looking app—the experience for a rural guy might be very different.
