KOCHI/BENGALURU, India, June 10, 2025 — Kyndryl (NYSE: KD), a leading provider of mission-critical enterprise technology services, has been selected by ESAF Small Finance Bank, a new age bank with over nine million customers and 787 branches across India, to transform and manage the mission-critical technology that underpins its operations and future banking capabilities.
Kyndryl Consult, Kyndryl’s technology advisory services, and Kyndryl Vital, the company’s innovative design-led co-creation approach, will support ‘StratoNeXt,’ ESAF Bank’s digital initiative to modernize its technology. Through this partnership, Kyndryl will engage with ESAF Bank to build a modern, regulatory-compliant infrastructure and update and migrate enterprise applications to this new environment, enabling greater agility, high availability and sustained innovation.
Lingraju Sawkar, President, Kyndryl India, said, “India’s growing rural banking sector is a key pillar to address the increasing demand for affordable credit. Our deep expertise in technology and experience in managing mission-critical banking and financial services systems in India uniquely position Kyndryl to support ESAF Bank’s vision of promoting financial inclusion and economic development. We look forward to growing our engagement with ESAF Bank to help it unlock new growth opportunities in its digital transformation journey.”
George K John, Executive Director, ESAF Small Finance Bank, stated, “ESAF Bank’s journey toward becoming India’s premier social bank is anchored in our steadfast commitment to inclusive and responsible banking, where we leverage technology to seamlessly blend digital innovation with meaningful physical interactions, thereby delivering personalized, accessible and engaging customer experiences to uplift communities. By modernizing our technology infrastructure and enhancing our service delivery capabilities under the strategic ESAF 2.0 StratoNeXt project, we aim to deliver a secure, seamless and customer-centric digital banking experience. Our goal is to empower not only our customers but also the broader communities we serve. The partnership with Kyndryl significantly advances this vision.”
As part of this strategic collaboration, Kyndryl will implement a comprehensive, multi-layered cybersecurity framework designed to strengthen the bank’s cybersecurity posture. This robust security architecture will facilitate ESAF Bank’s ability to efficiently introduce innovative security-rich banking solutions, enabling minimal disruption to operations.
Kyndryl plans to establish a dedicated support and delivery center in Kochi this year to provide services for ESAF Bank and other customers. This strategic expansion will harness Kerala’s skilled technology workforce to reinforce and deploy Kyndryl’s advanced delivery capabilities for customers in South India and generate local employment opportunities.
