Leading Indian Banks Leverage FICO's Cloud Platform for Enhanced Decisioning and AI, Bolstering Growth Opportunities

by Priya Jadhav 

HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and AU Small Finance Bank early adopters with FICO® Platform

India – December 5, 2023 – FICO (NYSE: FICO)

Highlights:

●        HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and AU Small Finance Bank are early adopters with FICO® Platform

●        FICO® Platform is now available in India – delivering the latest advanced analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities to empower local enterprises

●        FICO boasts partnerships with the majority of India's leading private sector banks, including 8 out of the top 10

●        FICO® Platform has achieved 16 consecutive quarters of greater than 40 percent year-over-year growth

●        AU Small Finance Bank, a growing, technology-driven Indian lender, is using FICO® Platform for customer onboarding and originations, increasing loan automation substantially

As FICO officially launches its industry-leading cloud-based platform in India, pioneering Indian banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and AU Small Finance Bank, are among the early adopters set to elevate customer satisfaction and drive innovation in the banking sector. FICO® Platform brings to market a suite of advanced decisioning and artificial intelligence capabilities tailored to empower local businesses. 

“In India's dynamic business environment, financial institutions will now have the potential to deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences, reshape business models, and achieve optimal outcomes for customers and stakeholders,” said Dattu Kompella, managing director in Asia for FICO. 

Balaji Narayanamurthy, Head of Business Intelligence Unit at Axis Bank, shared his excitement, stating, "As we integrate FICO Platform into our operations at Axis Bank, we're already witnessing promising outcomes. As part of our commitment to elevating the credit card customer experience, we eagerly anticipate moving to real-time decisioning for overlimit approvals using richer customer data. A significant step towards a seamless and efficient process.” 

The implementation of FICO Platform will enable Indian enterprises to unlock invaluable insights, optimize operations, and drive impactful commercial outcomes, aligning with the success of our clients across the region and worldwide. 

Abhijit Singh, Group Head - Banking as a Service (BaaS), International Banking and Digital Ecosystem Banking at HDFC, highlighted the transformative impact of FICO Platform, stating, "At HDFC Bank, our mission was to simplify the home loan process. FICO Platform has proven to be an invaluable asset. It's helped improve our straight-through processing rates, resulting in an enhanced customer journey.” 

This commitment to enhancing customer experiences is also reflected in the success of AU Small Finance Bank, headquartered in Jaipur, India. Their story stands as a testament to the potential of FICO® Platform. By embracing FICO's technology, AU Small Finance Bank achieved an immediate and notable 30% increase in vehicle loan automation, revolutionizing lending offers, and furthering its commitment to financial inclusion, particularly for underserved and unbanked populations. 

“In this era of rapid digital transformation, we are looking for solutions that can drive a connection with our valued customers,” said Mr Uttam Tibrewal, Executive Director, of AU Small Finance Bank “Using the FICO Platform, we can deliver vehicle loans faster and more accurately. This isn't just propelling our business growth; it's also aligning with our financial inclusion objectives. We're now planning to extend hyper-personalized lending solutions across various products to a wider demographic, encompassing rural customers and farmers, even those without conventional credit histories.” 

FICO® Platform: Empowering Indian Businesses : FICO® Platform offers several key benefits to banks and FSIs in India:

·         Powering Customer Connections: FICO Platform empowers business leaders to tap into their market knowledge and customer insights, enabling smarter choices, broader collaboration, and faster learning cycles to create stronger connections with customers.

·         Enabling Enterprise Transformation: FICO Platform enables organizations to optimize productivity and output through seamless collaboration between diverse roles and skillsets. Intuitive feedback loops drive high-performance through continuous learning.

·         Driving Strategic Business Outcomes: Ensuring alignment between IT projects and management KPIs is critical to delivering successfully on business goals. FICO Platform allows management to translate strategy into operations, significantly boosting effectiveness.

·         Rapid Time-to-Value: FICO Platform enables swift project implementation, measured in weeks rather than the traditional 12-month timeline of on-premises solutions.

·         FICO® Platform: A Preferred Choice for Digital Transformation

·         FICO® Platform is gaining significant momentum in the financial services sector, with many of the world’s leading and most innovative banks selecting it as the core of their digital transformation efforts. Organizations such as Lloyds Bank, BMO, Bradesco, ANZ and many more have all achieved outstanding business results with FICO Platform.

“FICO has achieved 16 consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth exceeding 40 percent for FICO Platform,” added Kompella. “This success is attributed to our intensely customer-focused innovation, setting us apart in the industry and earning recognition from leading analysts." 

FICO was named as a leader by The Forrester Wave™: AI Decisioning Platforms, Q2 2023 and received the Banking Innovation of the Year Platinum Award in the Future Digital Awards for Fintech & Payments 2023, presented by Juniper Research.

Forrester Research: Prioritizing Customer Experience : A recent Forrester Consulting study commissioned by FICO on the ‘Current State of Advanced Analytics Adoption’, reveals that three out of four industry decision-makers in India prioritize improving customer experiences. Financial services firms that leverage advanced analytics technologies experience increased customer acquisition, improved profitability, and enhanced compliance.

"In India, with 40% of the 1.4 billion population already using digital banking, the trend toward online financial services is clear,” said Kompella. “As more embrace digital banking, institutions compete to enhance customer experiences, emphasizing the benefits of AI, decision automation, and business outcome simulation."

Security, Speed and Scalability : FICO® Platform operates on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and boasts a multitude of features that set it apart from competitors.

·         Security is prioritized with advanced encryption protocols and stringent access controls, ensuring the utmost protection of sensitive data.

·         Speed is delivered via the platform's cutting-edge cloud infrastructure facilitating real-time processing and analysis of vast data volumes, empowering businesses to make informed decisions quickly.

·         Scalability, alongside its robust computing capabilities, ensures that FICO Platform empowers enterprises to fully leverage artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, helping them stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

"FICO Platform is all about helping businesses succeed and making a positive impact on both the organization and its customers," emphasized Kompella. "At FICO, we're proud to bring applied intelligence to the Indian market to drive real value and meaningful outcomes." Finance.

About FICO : FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics, AI and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 215 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US  and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency.