The merger of HDFC Bank with mortgage lender HDFC has boosted savings accounts portfolio of the bank. Pre-merger about 30% to 35% of incremental disbursals were to an HDFC Bank savings account customer. This number has risen about 80% of incremental disbursals, post-merger.
“Our aspiration is reach 90% by the end of this fiscal,” said Arvind Kapil, Country Head – Mortgage Banking, Home Loan, LAP, HDFC Bank. He added that the bank will continue its efforts to get remaining 10 % customers.
The bank’s market share has grown approximately by 18 % to 20 % on incremental disbursals, post the merger. It has exhibited robust and consistent higher double-digit, year-on-year growth across its home loan business for the first six months, post the merger. On a sequential basis, the bank has gained a leading position as it recorded a growth of 3.6% which was the highest amongst its peers in home loans. Retail mortgages of the bank increased to Rs 7.43 trillion as of December 31, 2023 from Rs 7.17 trillion as of September 2023.
“The home loan business for the bank has become both an asset and liability generator and is growing sizeably. This leads to a higher stickiness quotient and a stronger customer connect with the Bank for a longer duration,” said Kapil.
The bank has already commenced cross selling its products through these service centres from February 1. As a part of enhancing the cross-sell strategy, home loan customers will be able to avail of a wide range of products and services like consumer durable loans, credit cards, wealth advisory product, unsecured loans and home refurbishment loans.
“Going forward, cross-sell will be a continuing focus for both existing as well as new customers. The strength of this team is expected to be able to cross-sell at no incremental acquisition cost thanks to digital journeys,” he added.
He said that the bank’s fundamental strategy has been to improve the turnaround time of processing at front end. Post-merger turnaround time has reduced to almost one third. This coupled with the erstwhile HDFC Ltd’s strength of connecting with customers in person is a potential game changer in terms of both sales turnover and cross- sell.
By mid-March, the Bank will be launching a seamless straight through journey for home refurbishment loans which can become a strong product offering for customers. Also, by April 2024, the bank plans to launch a home saver product.