IIIT Hyderabad and the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 20 December to foster collaboration in academics, research, training, student exchange, and skill development in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector. The MoU was signed under the leadership of Prof. Sandeep Shukla and Dr. Deepak Kumar, Director, IDRBT, in the presence of Prof. H Krishnamurthy, Chief Research Scientist (Retd.), IISc Bengaluru, and a member of the governing councils of both institutions.

Under this partnership, the two institutions will explore avenues for collaboration aimed at public welfare by leveraging their combined expertise and institutional strengths. The agreement envisages the launch of joint Ph.D programmes and collaborative research in key areas such as digital payments, cybersecurity, vulnerability management, cryptography, blockchain technologies, fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the adoption of AI to enhance customer experience in BFSI systems.

Additional areas of cooperation include the standardisation and validation of BFSI technologies, development of domain-specific small language models (SLMs), cybersecurity initiatives, and the improvement of user experience across financial platforms. The MoU marks an important step towards strengthening industry-academia collaboration in building secure, inclusive, and future-ready financial systems.

December 2025