Axis Bank joins BIAN to digitally transform its Architecture

By Leandra Monteiro

The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), an independent, not-for-profit ecosystem formed of leading banks, technology providers, consultants and academics across the globe, announced that India’s third-largest private sector bank, Axis Bank has joined the organization, becoming the first BIAN member in India. As a member, Axis Bank aims to future-proof its technology architecture, as it looks to develop new services aligned with the needs of its customers.

Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of financial service offerings to customer segments, including large and mid-sized corporates, MSMEs, agriculture and retail industries. The bank has a large footprint of 4,700 domestic branches across India as of 31st December 2021, and has overseas operations spread over eight international offices with branches in Singapore, Dubai (at DIFC) and Gift City-IBU; representative offices at Dhaka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The bank’s international operations focus on corporate lending, trade finance, syndication, investment banking and liability businesses.

“We’re extremely proud to welcome Axis Bank, as the first bank out of India, to our growing organization,” said Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director, BIAN. “Due to the scale of their business, Axis will bring a wealth of perspective to BIAN. The organization has a collective knowledge of many technologies and domains, which our members will all benefit from immensely. BIAN will also benefit from Axis India perspective and regional knowledge.”

Axis Bank was attracted to BIAN because of its comprehensive industry reference models, API Exchange, and proof-of-concept projects. These projects include the recently launched Coreless Banking Initiative, which promotes a more efficient and effective approach to modernising banking software.

“As the financial services industry continues to adapt to changing market conditions, digital transformation has acted as a north star for many organizations,” said Avinash Raghavendra, CIO, Axis Bank. “Banks like Axis, who have been leaders and change agents when it comes to modern banking architectures, need to constantly ensure best in class standards and adopt a framework that enables the bank to deliver at speed and scale. This is why we’re excited to be joining BIAN, an organization we have admired for many years. BIAN has a tremendous impact on the industry and has a well-defined framework that resonates well with our strategy. It will help the bank accelerate its thought process, approach, and execution aligned with its vision. We’re proud to be part of the journey.”