Sashidhar Jagdishan, CEO and MD, HDFC Bank, said that they are considering initial public offering (IPO) plans for HDFC Securities and HDB Financial Services. However, the plans depend on the merger process of HDFC Bank with HDFC Limited.
HDFC Bank and HDFC Limited announced a USD 40 billion merger in April, this year. This was touted as the largest such transaction in corporate history. They added that it will take about 18 months for the completion of the merger.
Two IPOs
HDFC Bank said that it would like to maintain a majority stake in HDFC Securities, the brokerage since they have complementarity in business offerings. Moreover, their customers are almost the same as the banks. They are yet to decide if they want to keep a 95% stake in HDFC Securities or dilute it.
The bank is still awaiting directions from the regulator to ascertain a “glide path” for the way ahead for the company, Sashidhar Jagdishan said about HDB Financial Services, their non-bank finance subsidiary.
Payments app
The bank currently offers a payment app called Payzapp. However, it had to face slaps from the regulator in the recent past because of outages faced by customers, and it is planning to launch a payments app that will be better than Payzapp, very soon.
HDFC Bank plans to launch one new digital offering every three to four weeks, from July or August. It will also include a new mobile app for corporate and small business clients. It added that it has already soft-launched a customer experience hub sans much fanfare.
Credit Cards
The bank has made sizable progress on credit cards since it has been allowed to sell new cards after the ban, Jagdishan said. From a profitability perspective, it will be back at the pre-COVID levels in the next 6-8 months, he added. The overall number of cards stands at 17-18 million and HDFC Bank’s market share in the overall receivables has gone up to 47-48%.
Increasing the maturity profile
HDFC Bank will look at increasing the maturity profile of its liabilities which are currently below three years, Jagdishan said. He explained that mortgage assets are typically longer term in nature due to which the bank’s asset liability committee will have to take the appropriate calls.
Data Privacy Issues
The bank has recently appointed a chief data officer, who will be working along with a chief data security officer. The bank’s entire data mining operation starts with getting consent from the customer and being compliant with Indian regulations on this front as and when they come in.
Foreign Branches
HDFC Bank has the approval to open a branch in Singapore and after the merger with HDFC, the number of foreign branches may go up. Jagdishan said that the bank sees India as a key opportunity and does not see a significant increase in its global footprint, which currently consists of branches in Bahrain, Hong Kong, Dubai and Gift City.
