SBI Card expands partnership with TCS to boost digital transformation

SBI Cards and Payments Services, the country’s largest credit card issuer, has expanded its decade-long partnership with IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to boost its next leg of digital transformation. Under the new engagement, TCS will further digitalise and transform SBI Cards’ online onboarding processes to enable a faster turnaround and frictionless experience which is expected to drive greater customer satisfaction, the IT major said in an exchange filing on Monday.

As per the release, TCS will also enable SBI Cards to further expand its e-card issuance, delighting end customers and giving it a competitive edge in the market.

In the run up to SBI Card’s blockbuster IPO in 2020, TCS had helped the company transform its core cards sourcing platform and digitised a significant portion of the process. The future-ready, agile platform personalised customer experience and helped boost sales and retention, says TCS, the country’s largest software exporter.

“We are thrilled to expand our long-standing partnership with SBI Card to leverage our deep contextual and domain knowledge, customer-centric strategies, and expertise in driving transformation programs, to realize their vision of forming long-lasting customer relationships, and accelerate their next wave of growth,” says Anupam Singhal, Business Head, Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance, TCS.

TCS further says that the company worked closely with SBI Card to implement video KYC (know your customer) and e-signature features to fully digitalise its cards sourcing process during the Covid-19 crisis when social distancing norms were affecting customer interactions. This entire digitalisation project was complex, considering the integration touchpoints between these new technologies and the SBI Card-owned Sales24 platform, which is used for new account originations, it added.

Commenting on the extended partnership with TCS, Rama Mohan Rao Amara, MD & CEO, SBI Card says, “At SBI Card, we have been able to implement numerous high performing and scalable technology initiatives over the years in association with TCS. These have been designed to support our fast-growing customer base and expand business operations. In fact, we have been redefining user experience for our customers by investing in best-in-class digital capabilities to ensure enhanced customer engagement and payments experience.”

A subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI), SBI Cards and Payment Services is a non-banking financial company that offers an extensive credit card portfolio to individual cardholders and corporate clients which includes lifestyle, rewards, travel & fuel, and banking partnerships cards along with corporate cards covering all major cardholders' segments in terms of income profile and lifestyle. The brand has a wide base of over 13 million cards in force as of Q3 FY22.

Following the announcement, shares of TCS and SBI Cards ended lower by 1.78% and 1.31%, respectively, in line with the broader market. The BSE Sensex closed 617 points, or 1.08%, lower at 56,580.