Private sector lender IndusInd Bank clearly does not want to position itself as a next door bank.
The aspirations are more to be a ‘high street brand’ that would cater to the banking needs of the young and the emerging affluent.
Towards this end, IndusInd Bank has embarked on an innovative step of owning the branding rights of a rapid metro station and setting up a “fully digitised” branch in that metro station.
IndusInd Bank and Rapid Metro Gurgaon Ltd (RMGL) have come together to inaugurate the IndusInd Bank Cybercity Rapid Metro Station today.
Branding a rapid metro station is seen as an excellent example of transit mode of advertising in India.
This is the first time in the country that a complete metro station has been named and branded by a bank.
“The IndusInd Bank Cybercity station will now house the first fully digitised branch of IndusInd Bank”, Romesh Sobti, MD and Chief Executive Officer, said at Gurgaon on Wednesday.
IndusInd Bank and RMGL have inked a five-year contract for naming rights of the metro station.
The technology intensive branch at the Cybercity metro station will house latest generation automated teller machines (ATM) besides interactive tellers.
The smart messaging across the metro station – located in the heart of Cybercity – can be related to the new age banking requirements of the millennium city.
The bank is open to more such brand associations with metro stations in other parts of the country, Sobti said when asked if more tie-ups are on the anvil outside of National Capital Region.
Gurgaon – A high priority market
IndusInd Bank sees Gurgaon as a “high priority market” for the bank.
The fact that the bank has ramped up its branches in this area to 15 in the last 12 months was a clear pointer to the importance of this area as a market. Sobti pointed out.
IndusInd bank has now identified 12 markets – mainly Tier 2 cities – where it would focus energies on similar initiatives to woo the young and affluent, said Sumant Kathpalia, Head-Consumer Banking.
“The aim is to achieve 5 percent market share in the CASA in these 12 identified markets.”
Sobti said that IndusInd Bank will look to double its branch network from about 600 branches now to 1,200 in next three years.
“Brick and mortar branches as a distribution model are here to stay”, he said.