Equitas Small Finance Bank collaborates with IBM on modernized banking

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platform for digital-first generation

Cloud-native secure platform to elevate customer experience and catalyse the next

phase of high-speed growth for the bank

Chennai, 26th May 2023: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Equitas Small
Finance Bank is collaborating with IBM Consulting to design and build a digital
banking platform that delivers a modern and highly secure experience to the bank’s
customers and partners. The collaboration aims to boost Equitas’ digital products
and services offerings as it evolves its business for a digital-first generation. Through
this association, Equitas will embark on a high-speed path to leverage technology as
a differentiator in its next phase of growth.

Launched in 2016, Equitas Small Finance Bank is one of the leading small finance
banks in India. After having established its business as part of the initial growth
phase, Equitas is now looking to capitalize on its position as a technology-forward
industry leader. As part of the next growth phase, Equitas aims to commence its
modernization journey with a cloud-native platform architecture that aligns with the
bank’s business strategy.

To help achieve these layered objectives, Equitas is working together with IBM
Consulting to adopt a cloud native architecture so that digital channels and
applications can securely run across any technology environment. This will help
boost operational efficiency for the bank and enhance adherence to industry
regulatory compliance requirements, while enforcing higher levels of security. IBM
Consulting will develop and deploy modern web and admin portals for Retail Banking
and Corporate Banking as well as multi-device banking apps for Retail Banking.

Narayanan Easwaran, Chief Information Officer, Equitas Small Finance
Bank said, “Equitas SFB as part of its ongoing digital transformation program would
be focusing on customer experience by leveraging data and analytics to drive omni
channel engagement and enable a platform-driven ecosystem to make the
experience of banking and finance more personalized and empowering. The bank’s
delivery model would be highly product-centric moving away from traditional
Program Management methodologies to Agile frameworks for the various channels
including mobile. This partnership with IBM is just the first step towards engaging
customers. We are confident that this strategic partnership with IBM will help simplify
and transform the banking experience for customers across the board.”

Kamal Singhani, Country Managing Partner, IBM Consulting, India/ South Asia
said, “Evolving consumer demands have made digitization the need of the hour,
especially for the financial services sector, as it scales to newer customer-centric

business models. We’re excited to be the consulting partner and technology
collaborator of Equitas in its next growth phase. We are leveraging the deep banking
industry expertise coupled with digital experience and cloud capabilities of IBM
Consulting to design a modern platform to support Equitas Bank’s digital journey for
its customers.”

About Equitas Small Finance Bank Limited [ESFB]
Equitas Small Finance Bank is one of the largest small finance banks in India. As a
new-age bank, we offer a bouquet of products and services tailored to meet the
needs of our customers – individuals with limited access to formal financing
channels, as well as affluent and mass affluent, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
and corporates. Our firmly entrenched strategy focuses on providing credit to the
unbanked and underbanked micro and small entrepreneurs, developing products to
address the growing aspirations at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, fueled by granular
deposits and ‘value for money’ banking relationships.