RBL Bank’s CIO Ravi Pichan highlights impact of data and payments innovation in banking – ET CIO

Exclusive Next-Gen Technologies 12 min read RBL Bank’s CIO Ravi Pichan highlights impact of data and payments innovation in banking Ravi Pichan, CIO of RBL Bank, spoke with ETCIO on the role of technology in steering the bank on a growth path through improved market adaptability, customer responsiveness, ecosystem expansion, and the other key elements of his planning repertoire. Around this time last year, when Ravi Pichan joined RBL Bank as its new CIO the first thing he did right off was assess the lay of the land. He knew he had inherited the past and had to own the future. But he knew it all too well that he had to operate in the present. So, he invested time in assessing the existing processes, culture, talent, ecosystem, and technology infrastructure of the bank. And he took it all in- every germ of an idea and every hint of a need to spark value-enhancing process innovation that meets customer and business expectations. And he kept at it relentlessly. His perspicacity in identifying opportunities for context-based, purpose-driven digital innovation compatible with the culture and business objectives of RBL Bank has come in handy. It helps that Pichan knows a thing or two about driving technology for the promising and potentially profitable growth of a bank. When it comes to banking, Pichan is a seasoned veteran. And he seems to have segued into his role pretty well. His experience over the last two decades is firmly rooted in technology having worked with foreign banks and in the solution provider space. In the last year, Pichan has laid out the steps to support the business mandate at RBL Bank. In his first media interaction as the CIO of RBL Bank, Ravi Pichan spoke with ETCIO on the role of technology in steering the bank on a growth path through improved market adaptability, customer responsiveness, ecosystem expansion, and the other key elements of his planning repertoire. You recently completed a year as the CIO of RBL Bank. When you joined RBL Bank last year, how did you map out your priorities across the key aspects of business orientation, stakeholder connection, alignment of business expectations, and cultural adaptation? When I joined RBL Bank last year, I spent the first four weeks trying to understand the organization’s culture by appreciating, assimilating, and assessing the technology assets that we had created, thus far, in the digital space. I found that the bank had made a lot of investments in digital infrastructure and platforms over the past several years. The digital space is a mile long and a mile deep as well. The two-fold question looming before me was- How do we leverage this technology from a customer experience standpoint? The world of technology is not volume play. It is a value play. Any technology should be tied to business outcomes to give customers what they need. It needs to add value to the customer experience otherwise it is merely good technology that doesn’t necessarily serve the business objectives and does not deliver business outcomes. The focus from the business strategy standpoint was simple- How do I enhance customer experience? The second question was- How do I bring the best of RBL Bank in terms of products to the customers and how are these delivered in as seamless and as simple a manner as possible? The more you drive simplicity the better customer experience you deliver in today’s day and age. That’s where my focus was in the initial period- to understand the assets, to simplify the ecosystem in terms of converging wherever those assets were not required, and wherever the assets were required we aimed at maximizing the output keeping the customer at the center of the solution. And we tried to formulate the entire digital strategy based on that. I am mindful of these facts while I try to align my technology strategy with the business objectives and the growth projections of our business. That also nudged me to drive a lot of efficiency in the ecosystem because sometimes too much technology does not necessarily enhance efficiency. We are in an ecosystem where customers don’t have time. So as a bank, we treat time as a luxury. We cannot challenge the expectations they have. We need to deliver on that expectation.Ravi Pichan, CIO, RBL Bank You have an impressive BFSI industry-specific track record but you also have experience from the solution provider standpoint in your background. How has such a depth of experience on both sides of the table colored your orientation in terms of how you create the vision, mission, and strategy for IT at RBL Bank? You have an impressive BFSI industry-specific track record but you also have experience from the solution provider standpoint in your background. How has such a depth of experience on both sides of the table colored your orientation in terms of how you create the vision, mission, and strategy for IT at RBL Bank? I draw on my past professional experience on the other side of the table to bring the consultative mindset and see how we partner to drive the best outcomes for the bank keeping the customer at the center of the ecosystem as technology has evolved dramatically. Today it is in the driver’s seat. That is an extremely responsible role. Technology is setting the path it is not merely following business diktats. So you have to sit with the business and understand the specific requirements that if there is a particular product they wish to bring to the market, what tools do we have and need to make it effective in today’s marketplace, and how do we position ourselves for today and tomorrow? During my stints abroad with Bank of America and Barclays, I have witnessed some of the digital transformation that we are now undertaking in India. I have seen this from close quarters. UPI and API are the modern tech stack, especially in the BFSI sector. At RBL Bank, we are a firm believer that UPI is going to scale massively. And we need to have a lot of that capability in-house to be a part of this revolution. New capabilities keep coming to the table. We got to see where the bets are. Technology is the next big advantage. Banks don’t necessarily need to be a certain size to punch above their weight. We are a midsized bank but we can punch above our weight with technology differentiation. Digital is a great leveler. We are enabling that cultural shift. Transformation never stops. If it stops you become obsolete in a matter of time. In terms of technology procurement, we have adopted a clear approach towards what are we going to buy and what are we going to build. We also want to bring the best-in-class talent and capability within the four walls of the organization. We hire tech talent and also create an amalgamation of business and IT by bringing in functional expertise within the team. This hybrid combination helps us drive business-focused tech. We are expanding our frontiers beyond Mumbai to gain access to technology talent hotspots like Pune to get tech talent. Digital stack and data stack are the key focus areas for us in terms of technology.Ravi Pichan, CIO, RBL Bank In the digital era, banks must understand their customers on a granular level to identify high-value customer segments and then provide them with a smooth, end-to-end customer journey with personalized targeting. But this also requires banks to empower their employees by giving them the right information at the right time to serve customers better. Could you talk about the interplay between the two and the role that IT plays in partnering with each other? The customer is at the heart of our ecosystem. And customer experience ties back to the people who are directly serving the customer. We have also started focusing on the people closest to the customer- the feet on the street. It could be a call center agent or someone in a car showroom trying to sell a loan. The more you empower them with technology, the more they will grow the business and that will have a direct impact on customer experience. We are in the process of creating a single Loan Origination System (LOS) and we are going to make it equivalent to a fintech. The LOS is not a product that our end customers may directly consume but it will impact customer experience because the people they interact with in terms of the feet on the street are going to leverage it in a highly competitive market. It will help them make the customer journeys as simple and as seamless as possible by assimilating what they already know about the customer. The LOS is going to get integrated with the customer data hub to actively drive the cross-sell through technology. Today, omnichannel is a priority. We need to provide a consistent experience across channels- some of it could be self-service or through our associates. Unlocking the value of open ecosystems and harvesting customer behavioral data to provide hyper-personalized engagement will be the key to success for banks in the future. What steps have you taken to adapt to an ‘open banking’ future? We are trying to drive the concept of open banking and integrate it with the ecosystem. We are saying that we need to bring the best of the banks to the partner ecosystem and it is the open banking framework that will help us drive this. We are trying to see how the partner -internal or external can integrate with the bank in a manner that is simple, seamless, and aligned to all the regulatory norms, data privacy, and data residency standards. And we also need to use that data to provide other products as well. This seamless integration play will be powered by the open banking stack. We are a bank but the partners are from the fintech ecosystem so we need to keep the culture, speed, and technology maturity aspects in mind. We need to work out how the partners engage with us and what should be the cultural alignment for the partners to engage with us. We are revamping our tech platforms. Our developer portal of the future needs to focus on speed. At RBL Bank, how are you leveraging digital for cost optimization, business optimization, and building new business models and revenue streams? As a CIO, how do you ensure that these business priorities are seeped into your IT strategy so deeply that they find their implementation across the entire value chain? One of our priorities is simplifying the technology ecosystem. We are trying to consolidate and take the cost away. Leveraging technology to reduce costs in other departments of the bank like operations where there are a lot of manual activities. Automating these processes is a priority. We also need to differentiate between automation and digital sometimes the two can get intertwined so we have to be very clear on this difference. Automation and process simplification take people and process costs away, reduce operational risks for the bank, and improve TAT and CX. At RBL Bank, we have advanced RPA practices in place. We are in an ecosystem where customers don’t have time. So as a bank, we treat time as a luxury. We cannot challenge the expectations they have. We need to deliver on that expectation. We are expanding our branches. At the branch level, we are trying to sunset a lot of subsystems so that we can standardize it not only from a cost standpoint but also from an experience standpoint. Multiple subsystems can create a “stop-start” impact which adversely affects customer experience. Banks are driving a digital culture across customer service, user-centric products and services, and digital-driven internal processes and workforce culture. As you try to balance the end user expectations with the organizational imperatives and regulatory environment, how have you created a well-defined, well-communicated set of values that are reinforced through positive and negative incentives? We are single-mindedly focused on resilience and stability. For a bank that is paramount. You can bring great technology but it needs to be consistent and stable. We have created a “Run the Bank” department whose sole focus is to ensure that our applications are stable. If the foundation is weak then it’s a house of cards. We need to manage the “change the bank” and “run the bank” aspects simultaneously. At RBL Bank, we have put the right governance practice in place and then aligned it with policy. Over the last six months, we have created an architecture function. We are beefing up that team with data architects and technology architects. We are creating a culture of secure by design. An Architecture Review Board has also been set up. So now any solution cannot see the daylight until the Technology Review Board approves it. It could be an internal solution or a third-party solution. We have also tied it to the other functions of the bank like procurement and vendor management. The infosec team and data team are a part of it. If someone tries to bypass it, they violate the bank’s policy and are inviting serious consequences. All of this is documented and communicated to the board as well. When it comes to security you should start with doubt until proven otherwise. We are also trying to create the first line of defense and second line of defense in terms of enterprise security. The first line of defense is the tech team. The second line of defense is the infosec team. Wherever required we also involve external help in specific instances. It is just to validate our hypothesis to ensure that we are not checking our homework. It gives us a compass and a degree of assurance. As a technology navigator, a CIO’s role is a lot about looking into the future and exploring new possibilities. Which current tech trends do you think will lead you into the future? Are there any tech trends that have not lived up to the hype that surrounded them? The data space and innovations across the payment landscape are going to be the hotbed for innovation and the next wave of growth in banking. Digital stack and data stack are the key focus areas for us in terms of technology. ChatGPT could be an asset in the context of customer service. But a lot of that data resides outside India and today the DPDP laws are very strict so we are keeping an eye on it but we are not using it. The jury might be split on it but Blockchain hasn’t necessarily made that dent. Metaverse is also a trend that I am conservative on. We are yet to see how it can help the customer and the value proposition for the bank.