kochi from developing apps that make the life easier for customers and experimenting with latest digital backbones like blockchain two kerala banks federal bank and south indian bank are at the forefront of the digital innovationin 2015 federal bank launched fedbook selfie an app that allows a user to open an account within three minutes by clicking a selfie and also serves as an epassbookwe had a lakh downloads for selfie during the initial year we revamped it in january 2018 and the latest version has 400 to 500 downloads daily said jithesh pv deputy vice president digital centre of excellence federal bank the bank won the skoch smart technology award 2015 for the technological innovationthey have now integrated the technology for ekyc which allows customers to walk into the bank and open an account instantly nearly 85 of our new accounts are being opened through this route jithesh saidtab banking another innovation allows the bank to go to any firm and open multiple accounts for the employees there using a biometric device connected to a tablet computer earlier it was all paperbased work but it is all automated now jithesh saidapart from the customer acquisition federal bank is using digital technology in serving the existing customers through the mobile banking app one can buy mutual funds or pay utility bills using the app altogether there are 50 services based on the digital technology thrissurheadquartered south indian bank sib is also fast adopting digital technology fastag is one such innovation your car dashboard gets a sticker that contains an rfid tag and each time you pass through the toll it automatically debits money from your account you dont have to wait in long queues said sony a dgm and head digital banking with sibsib had also introduced a mobile app digital elock which bagged the digital india excellence award2017 at the 5th paniim world management awards 2017 this year we have received seven such awards sony saidthe bank is also investing in emerging technologies sony said we were the first bank after icici to do a live pilot on block chain we implemented the platform tied up with an exchange house in the middle east and conducted the transactions on this platform he saidfacebook chatbot and contactless cards that enables the user to pay at shops by just tapping on the pointofsale device without keying in pin are other notable innovation sib has introduced