At IFTA 2025, CSB Bank’s Aman Singla shares how the 105-year-old bank is undergoing a digital overhaul—modernising transaction banking while retaining a strong human touch. He highlights secure, data-driven payments, a balanced approach for legacy and Gen Z customers, and the role of collaboration and talent in navigating a fast-evolving banking landscape.
Hi everyone and welcome to Small Cap Spotlight. I’m Mubina Kapasi and I’m here at the IFTA 2025. I have with me Mr. Aman Singla, who is the Head of Transaction Banking Group with CSB Bank. Mr. Singla, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me here.
Aman Singla: Thank you for having me.
Mubina Kapasi: To begin with, you know, CSB Bank of course is a very well-known bank, a legacy of a century almost. I’d like to understand a little bit more about the traditions at the bank, but at the same time, your role as somebody who does transaction banking. What exactly are your responsibilities? Yeah, okay.
Aman Singla: Hi, thank you so much. So I think the CSB Bank, as you rightly mentioned, is a 105-year-old bank and we are trying to rebuild the bank again, which is more in sync with the times that we’re living in. We’re trying to build a visceral stack for the bank, but at the same time, ensuring that we do not lose the physical touch with the customers.
We’re also expanding our branches, right? And as a part of the bank, the role that I play is for managing transaction banking. As you say, the word itself is transaction banking, which means all kinds of transactions within the banks are being managed by us, whether it is payments, which is domestic or cross-border. It could be supply chain, it could be debt finance
So any related movement of money within the bank, especially for current account customers, for corporate customers, is something that we manage. And payments is in fact the backbone of what we do these days, right? How quickly and how efficiently and how securely the money moves domestically and cross-border is something that we ensure that happens without any kind of risk, without ensuring the fraud, the minimum. And that’s the kind of role we play within the team, within the bank.
Mubina Kapasi: So let’s understand a bit more about that because I think the one thing that’s changed in banking the most is the number of people who actually have to physically go to a bank because everything’s being done online, thanks to departments like yours that you head. So over the last couple of years, how has banking at CSB changed? What have you all done differently and what do you all plan to do even in the future? Let’s get that part of it.
Aman Singla: From a CSB bank perspective, I think we are undergoing a complete digital overhaul.
People might call it digital transformation, but we call it digital overhaul because we have changed, moved from our existing core banking to new core banking. We have started connecting a lot of partners because we realize that we can’t build everything on our own. And also, since we cater to a lot of customers who are with us for 40 years and also want to onboard customers who are young, Gen Z, so we have to have a balance between kind of services we can offer to both kinds of customers.
So traditional customers will still want to go to the branch and meet the branch manager. The Gen Z guys would still want to remain digitally. So we’re trying to create customer journeys which are digitally mapped, which are digitally savvy, digitally take care of all the requirements.
But at the same time, we also ensure that any kind of advice or communication which goes to them is also packed by data and solid kind of experience that we have. So we would want both kinds of worlds to exist for us. Customers coming to the branch and customers using a digital journey.
So that is what we endeavor is to do that.
Mubina Kapasi: So you brought up a very interesting point because from what I understand, while on one side, you are working to make the customer experience better from a technology standpoint, but at the same time, you’re also working to supply your backend teams with the right kind of data that you collect. Could you tell me a bit more about that?
Aman Singla: So, okay. So, you know, data is something which every bank has, right? It depends on how you want to look at that data. If I look at data as a point of transaction, it could be a noise. But if I want to look at the data as a way of engaging with the customer real time in a contextual way and giving him offers or products which are more contextual to his requirements, then you will look at it differently, you know? Then the data becomes personalized then, right? So it is very important that we work on the data, but at the same time, ensure the guardrail has come out by a DPDB Act, which has recently come out and the RBI guidelines are adhered to and ensure that data is there.
It is not just coded, it is used properly with a purpose, with an intent and so that data discipline is there so that customers feel that the data is not being misused. We ensure that our back-end team also understands that.
Mubina Kapasi: Yeah, I think that’s very important, customer privacy and concerns around that. Now, I want to know what kind of challenges you face on a day-to-day basis, because we love to, you know, we talk about big picture, but when it comes down to the day-to-day, are there any challenges that you face that you’d like to share?
Aman Singla: We do face challenges both internally and externally, right? Internally, because if you ever get anything right in the bank, right? Three, four departments have to come together to work on it, right? Business, tech, ops and us, you all have to come together and work and to get everybody on the same page, you know, talking the same language, making them understand the same objective. I will not say it’s impossible, but it’s difficult to get it done. But yes, but once we all agree, we are all allowed to go and get it done.
Time is of the essence, because market will not stop for anybody. We have to ensure that we keep working on it in a timely manner and ensure we are in sync with the market requirements, with the customer requirements. So there are times that we face normally on day-to-day basis, it’s internal.
It’s obviously competition is there, market is there, market is evolving. We just can’t sit and relax. We keep working on it and we do work on multiple fronts, multiple products, multiple technologies.
So yeah, challenges are there and there’s no fun without challenges.
Exactly, I mean, that’s what I was going to say. Neither is it inevitable.
Mubina Kapasi: I mean, it’s not inevitable, but at the same time, it could not be that fun, you know, if you don’t have challenges. I want to know what you think of the talent pool we have in India, especially to cater to the kind of requirements you have in your department. Will you tell me a bit about your team?
Aman Singla: So, okay, so the talent pool in India is not an issue at all, right? I personally believe, and I think Bang also believes that every person has the potential to do something, right? We really can’t offer a perfect match to the role we’re looking at, you know? You will have to have people who, you will have the attitude and the ability to work on that.
I think so, I think we also have to invest in people, right? Both in terms of training, both in terms of knowledge, in terms of exposure and over a period of time, they will also learn because we also already started, you know, we also didn’t start, I didn’t start thinking I’ll do Tandakian Banking, right? I started something else. Over a period of time, you had good bosses, good mentors, good ecosystem to help you build your capability. So that is the way it is.
But the people, right? Attitude is not a problem in India at all. Definitely not. People don’t want to work.
Mubina Kapasi: Let’s hear about your personal journey because like you mentioned, nobody ever starts thinking they’ll do transaction banking. But were you always in the banking space? Could you give me a flavor about it?
Aman Singla: No, I was not in the banking space. I started my career with a company called Egon Mobile as a CLE directive, which was a bazaar trade.
So for the first six, seven years of my career, I was in the automobile industry. And after that, I transitioned to banking. And as in a bank, you always start with current account openings to start with.
And then from there, you had a journey with some current account to trade to transaction banking with CSB Bank now. So I think it’s been a journey which has happened because you want to do it, you know? Because you want to be out of your comfort zone. Because the moment you’re out of your comfort zone, you can make things happen.
Otherwise, it won’t happen at all.
Mubina Kapasi: And very inspiring indeed. That brings us to the end of the interview. Thank you so much, Mr. Singla for joining us. Thank you so much.