How HDFC Bank's myApps is enabling Digital connect with God, Housing Societies and Urban Local Bodies

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the country to go under an unprecedented state of lockdown — a move that has severely impacted businesses, the underprivileged section of society, education and life as we know it. In these times of uncertainty, remote working and social distancing have become a part of our lexicon, and are here to stay.

While a host of solutions such as drone mapping, the launch of the Aarogya setu app, the facilitation of home-delivery of essential goods to citizens etc are being deployed by the government to deal with the spread of the virus, the pandemic, and the measures put in place to arrest its spread has brought to the forefront not only the significant potential of digital platforms and tools, but also its necessity.

This is where HDFC Bank’s myApps — a unique suite of mobile apps and banking products — is filling the gap.

myApps are a suite of white label mobile apps powered by HDFC Bank that brings housing societies, religious institutions, municipal and urban local bodies and their end-users all one one single platform by offering them the convenience of digital payment modes and other value-added services.

At present, HDFC Bank is offering four types of applications under myApps — mySociety, myClub, myPrayer and myCity.

“It is our endeavor to be an integral part of our customers’ daily lives by going beyond providing basic banking services to offer an experience. The myApps suite of products will provide our institutional customers with convenience, flexibility and the digital edge that they need to ensure they are enhancing their services and furthering the Digital India mission. The suite is also pertinent since it offers a contact less platform for customers, keeping in mind the circumstances we are living under due to the pandemic, ” said Ms. Smita Bhagat, Country Head, Government & Institutional Business, Startups and E-Commerce, HDFC Bank.

“At HDFC Bank, we have been at the forefront of digitisation initiatives and want to take this digital push to the last mile by tapping into these largely underpenetrated segments,” she added.

While at the outset, the myApps suite helps in digitising payments for these institutions, in the current scenario, its use cases go way beyond this.

For instance, the myCity app, originally aimed at driving citizen engagement, also enables local municipal bodies to deliver various citizen services, provide the latest updates on the city and allows citizens to pay property tax and utility bills.

However, in the current crisis, the myCity app is a crucial service that can help urban local bodies easily connect with citizens, broadcast necessary information, deliver e-healthcare related details and online application processing to help citizens get correct, up to date information about COVID-19. At a time when fake news and rumours can severely dampen efforts to curb the pandemic, this unified portal to display verified information directly from the urban bodies can go a long way.

While getting verified information holds key to helping citizens deal with the pandemic, the social distancing norms and remote working directives means everyday activities have been curbed. Although the strict lockdowns are now slowly easing in many parts of the country, places of worship continue to remain close to avoid crowding.

In such a scenario, the myPrayer app enables people to not only be in touch with their faith by remotely accessing religious institutions in times of distress, but also contribute to their welfare by making online donations. With the myPrayer app, devotees can make online donations, view live feeds, read religious articles and more.

While the lockdown means most of us are stuck at home, the upkeep of the housing society has become even more important to maintain hygiene and regular maintenance. While housing society funds come from the maintenance charge levied to flat owners, collection of this money has become a challenge in today’s times. Here, the mySociety app can help members to conveniently pay their dues to societies online, thereby staying safe in their flats and in turn assisting the societies to conduct their operations effectively even in these difficult times.

Secure, simple and swift, myApps is ideal for institutions wanting to create a superior user experience for their audiences without having to spend large amounts on developing and maintaining an app themselves.

Sunali Rohra, Executive Vice President – Government & Institutional Business, HDFC Bank, said, “We are delighted to launch this suite of products that marks HDFC Bank’s move towards ecosystem banking. It’s an industry-first as we provide a specifically tailored suite of solutions to enhance the digital capabilities of historically-underserved segments and make them future ready.”

A leader in the banking sector, HDFC Bank has been moving beyond providing customers with basic banking services. myApps is a part of the bank’s strategy to take digitisation to the last mile by tapping into the B2B2C space, especially at a time when digitisation is key to enable social distancing.