Equitas brings some fun elements to staid banking

Banking is serious business — there’s no two ways about it. However, Chennai-headquartered Equitas Small Finance Bank has embarked on a journey to inject some fun element to make it enjoyable.

From punching in mobile banking PIN from floating bubbles containing numbers and printing Sudoku puzzles on the back of bank statements, to setting up ‘high five’ standees in branches for customers to express their satisfaction and employees wearing T-shirts (a different colour from Monday through Friday) to work, the bank is trying to make banking a tad less boring.

Vasudevan PN, Managing Director & CEO, said: “…Anyway banking is serious. You are dealing with money, which is not even yours — it is somebody else’s money.

“...So, banking is serious, the banking process is serious, everything is serious and everybody is serious. So, fine, we will also be serious. But while we are being serious about banking, we also felt why not have some element of fun in the way things are done.” To make usage of its mobile banking app a little more interesting, Vasudevan said that users can choose their four-digit personal identification number (PIN) from the bubbles that keep floating around the mobile screen. He felt that the youth may enjoy this experience.

For those who don’t want to do this kind of stuff, there is an option to switch to the normal mode of accessing the mobile app. Once the customer gets into the app, there is a landing page where he/she can put his/her photograph.

Vasudevan said customers receiving statement of account from the bank, which started its operations in September 2016, will find Sudoku (number placement) puzzle on the reverse side.

He elaborated: “So, when the statement reaches the customer’s house, there may be some people, especially kids, who may want to solve Sudoku. When I first got my statement, my daughter took it away to her room immediately to solve the puzzle.”

Taking a cue from a multinational pizza chain, which has a bell for customers to ring in order to signify they had a good time, the bank has placed standees, which emit a sound when given a high-five by satisfied customers at branches.

From Monday through Friday, the bank’s employees wear T-shirts (one colour each day). For example, all employees don blue T-shirts on Monday, red on Tuesday, and so on. The colours for other days are yellow, green and orange.

Vasudevan said, “So, when a customer walks into a branch and sees everybody in a similar coloured T-shirt, it kind of lightens up the atmosphere. So, these are the various fun elements that we are trying to introduce in banking.

“This is just the starting point. There has to be a lot more stuff like this that we have to do.”

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