Punjab National Bank Launches PNB Metaverse To Offer Digital Branch Visit Experience

Punjab National Bank, on Thursday (July 6) announced the launch of its virtual branch called PNB Metaverse.

The virtual branch will be accessible to both new and existing customers. Through this, the customers will be able to explore all the banking services and products including deposits, retail and MSME loans, digital products, government schemes, etc. 

As per an NDTV report, the customers will be able to access the digital experience and virtual environment through their laptops and mobile phones. 

The report quoted PNB’s managing director Atul Kumar Goel saying, “With this technology, we are looking forward to increasing the customer engagement rate, improving the customer acquisition process, and providing a hyper-personalised customer experience.” 

In a blog post, the bank noted that its aim is “to offer quality financial services by leveraging technology to create value for customers and other stakeholders, opportunities for employees and thus, contributing to the economic growth of the nation.”

Digitisation of banks have helped the digital economy to flourish. However, this has also put the customer data at security risk. The development comes at a time when major banks and NBFCs along with the major ecommerce platforms are being summoned by the Parliament for discussions on data security measures.

However, in India, PNB is not the first financial institution to join Metaverse. Last year, fintech startup Kiyaverse was launched by Kiya.ai to enable banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to roll out virtual interactions experiences for their customers. During the announcement, the startup said that it would offer services such as virtual relationship managers, peer avatars and virtual advisors called Robo-advisors. 

In the digital era, when people are looking for experience as much as they seek the right set of products and services, Metaverse serves as a platform that bridges the gap between physical and digital environments.

Last year, ecommerce major Flipkart also announced plans to join metaverse with the launch of Flipverse to offer virtual shopping experience to the customers. 

Additionally, last year, Bharti Airtel became the first telecom company of India to launch Metaverse multiplex on the PartyNite Metaverse platform.

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