HDFC Bank executive on Apple partnership: ‘Temporary break, reviewing cost-to-income’, says report

HDFC Bank has taken a "temporary break" from its five-year-long partnership with US technology giant Apple, Business Standard reported, citing a senior executive from the private lender.

The break comes amid a review of the "nature of the partnership" from a "cost-to-income perspective", it added.

Calling the relationship with Apple "good", Parag Rao, group head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Marketing, and Liability Product Group at HDFC Bank, told the paper that the lender is reviewing the entire partnership.

"We monitor cost-to-income, and sometimes the cost-to-income measure does not work out for a particular partnership. We have taken a temporary break,” Rao stated.

What Was The Partnership?

As per the deal, India's biggest private lender provided instant cashback and easy monthly instalment (EMI) facilities on the purchase of Apple products through the HDFC Bank credit cards.

Rao added that the "quality of the relationship" can be judged by the fact that after HDFC Bank, Apple has taken over more than one banker to provide instant cashback and no-cost EMI facilities. The Apple website shows that customers using ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and American Express cards can avail of the facilities, as per the report.

PayZapp, UPI & more

Further, on HDFC Bank's mobile payment app PayZapp, Rao said that early results after the app's revamp are "encouraging", the report added.

It said that the PayZapp app has around 1.4 crore customers, of whom 60 per cent are bank customers and 40 per cent are non-bank customers. “We are seeing good traction, good active rates, and good transactions happening,” Rao said.

He added that HDFC Bank and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are working to ensure that the lender's contribution towards the unified payments interface or UPI transaction numbers via the app increases, the report added.

“We see the opportunity. HDFC Bank, with its handles, commands 14 per cent of the UPI ecosystem. That’s a large share on a 40 crore customer base,” he added.