The modern banking customer is tech-savvy and prefers owning things that are smart, including their credit and debit cards. With expanding product needs, these users focus on enhanced features and functionality in addition to a seamless user experience. In order to meet their demands, banks and financial institutions need to upgrade their offerings and make use of modern technology to cater to these customers.

With the massive growth in digital payments fuelled by the pandemic, the number of customers owning a card today has increased proportionately. According to a report by Wordline titled ‘India Digital Payments Report’, the total number of cards in circulation stood at 946.81 million as of December 2020. To fulfill the digital banking needs of their millennial customers using a card, banks are required to replace their legacy systems with modern card platforms that offer more flexibility in terms of payment as well as allow them to avail themselves better features.

A Modern Card Platform

As more and more millennials and the Gen-Z population of India are availing of banking services, financial institutions are being forced to constantly innovate themselves to attract and retain them as customers. In order to cater to this generation of cardholders, they must enhance their card programs and implement digital innovations sooner rather than later.

A modern card platform for millennials brings to the table several innovations in the form of a cloud-native platform, open and embeddable banking solutions, turnkey implementation, support for contactless payments among others. These innovations provide cardholders with an enhanced user experience along with various other benefits.

The benefits offered by a modern card platform to cardholders:

● Control: Digital functionality (e.g., card controls, digital disputes, and PIN selection) through online or mobile banking provides the millennial cardholder with more control of their account.

● Convenience: Digital features and servicing allow the millennial cardholder to self-service or choose their preferred way to interact with the card issuer where, how, and when they want, while providing fast access to the payment device.

● Mobility: Digital card issuance allows the millennial cardholder to travel without concern of losing their card and having no access to their funds because digital cards can be issued to a mobile wallet at any time.

● Security: The ability to turn a card on and off, report a lost/stolen card, receive account alerts, and other similar card-control functionality makes these cardholders feel that their money and account are secure.

Conclusion

As digital banking is gaining more prominence in the country and banks understand the importance of adopting technologies to attract customers to obtain their banking services, modern card platforms may soon become a growing trend in the financial services industry.