January 2021: Nation’s leading public sector bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), has announced an alliance with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur& FIRST (Foundation for Innovation & Research in Science & Technology), to jointly establish the Punjab National Bank – IIT Kanpur Innovation Centre at the IIT campus.
The MoU was signed at the PNB Head Quarters, Dwarka, New Delhi, in the presence of Sh. CH S S Mallikarjunarao, MD & CEOof PNB and top officials from the Bank, IIT Kanpur& FIRST.
Under this partnership, PNB and IIT Kanpur will set up a “Fintech Innovation Centre (FIC)” as a vehicle to research and develop technological solutions to address challenges and explore opportunities in the BFSI space. PNB intends to create new products / solutions with technological innovations by creating a Fintech Innovation Centre at IITK involving IITK’s experienced faculty members with the help of FIRST.
The collaboration of technical prowess from IIT Kanpur and financial expertise of PNB make it an apt “Fin-Tech” partnership that will help build innovations and entrepreneurial excellence. The Fintech Innovation Centre will be supported by a holistic ecosystem of financial institutions, academia, Venture Capital funds, technology companies and key government organizations.
Planned focus areas include Fintech, Digital Lending, Payments, Cyber Security, etc. The Bank will get access to the pool of Fin-Techs incubated by IIT-Kanpur along with their innovative solutions.
Sh. CH S S Mallikarjunarao, MD & CEO, Punjab National bank said, “It is animportant day for PNB and IIT Kanpur, where we are embarking on journey to bring expertise of country’s premier academic institution into Banking & Financial services. This shall provide an opportunity to the start-ups and Fintech companies incubated by IIT Kanpur to develop technological solutions for Punjab National Bank and financial ecosystem.We need to provide omni-channel solutions to various segments of customers like Retail, Agriculture, MSMEs etc. with forward and backward linkages. It’s important to ensure last mile connect and Turn Around Time (TAT) in satisfying the customer requirements through Digital or physical touch points at every link. The Fintech players and startups can participate in developing customer facing technology solutions to extend the link between customer and Bank through peripheral solutions, Open Banking etc.”
Prof. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay from IIT Kanpur, said on the occasion, “With establishment of PNB-FIC at IIT Kanpur, World class research will be undertaken in Fintech related neo-technologies for developing advanced solutions for the Bank”.
