V Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO of IDFC First Bank: India’s discretionary consumption could see a $2.6 trillion wave of spending in the next 10 years that will redefine how banks and fintechs engage customers
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, October 9, 2025: At the Global FinTech Fest (GFF) 2025 in Mumbai, Mr V Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO of IDFC First Bank, painted an ambitious picture of India’s financial future — one driven by digital innovation, hyper-personalisation, and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). The session was moderated by Ms Latha Venkatesh, Executive Editor at CNBC-TV18, who steered a lively discussion on how technology is reshaping credit, customer experience, and inclusion.
Vaidyanathan began by looking ten years ahead, noting that India’s GDP could reach $10 trillion by 2035, with credit expanding to nearly $6.5 trillion. “India’s discretionary consumption could see a $2.6 trillion wave of spending in the next 10 years that will redefine how banks and fintechs engage customers,” he said. He emphasised that while the need for credit, deposits, and investments would remain constant, the delivery channels and customer interfaces would be transformed beyond recognition.
From Branch Banking to Hyper-Personalisation
Demonstrating live examples from the IDFC First Bank app, Vaidyanathan showcased how AI and open banking are being deployed to deliver personalized experiences — from automating collection calls to providing a 360-degree financial snapshot across savings, loans, mutual funds, EPF, and even real estate holdings. “Customers can see their complete financial universe on a single screen,” he explained. “This kind of visibility was impossible just a few years ago.”
He also revealed how the bank has integrated real-time services, allowing users to book airline tickets or manage lifestyle purchases directly within the app — a glimpse of how banking and commerce are converging.
Digital at the Core
Reflecting on the bank’s journey since its 2018–19 transformation, Vaidyanathan credited the digital ecosystem for helping IDFC First Bank grow its deposits from ₹10,000 crore to ₹2 lakh crore in just six years. “Without digital, that kind of growth is not possible,” he said. “We built a completely modern tech stack — APIs, microservices, cloud, DevSecOps — all from the ground up.”
On the question of whether physical branches still matter, he was clear: “The future is digital. Physical will take you only so far.” He added that digital platforms enable financial inclusion at scale, from lending to small entrepreneurs and gig workers to facilitating green finance and sanitation credit — segments that traditional banking has largely overlooked.
AI and GenAI: The Next Frontier
The conversation turned to artificial intelligence, where Vaidyanathan shared how the bank uses over 100 AI/ML scorecards for credit evaluation, fraud detection, and customer profiling. “With GenAI, tasks that once took hours — such as analysing 100 pages of a bank statement — can now be done in seconds,” he said. “It’s transforming both efficiency and precision.”
Building a Native Digital Bank
In closing, Vaidyanathan described the decision to scrap third-party SaaS apps and build a native digital platform as “one of the hardest but most rewarding calls” the bank made. “Had we outsourced it, we couldn’t have achieved the speed or flexibility we now have,” he said. “The future belongs to truly digital-first banks — and we’re just getting started.”
