Banking technology and retail banking form the core of the businesses today. These two intermediaries of a larger business group have made banking accessible to masses in rural areas, enabling the corporate sector to market its products in the remotest corner of the country. The point was emphasized by the speakers at The Retail Banking and Banking Technology seminar organized by the Indian Bank's Association and Trade Fairs & Conferences International at Hotel Hilton Towers, Wednesday.

 

State minister for industries relief and rehabilitation, Patangrao Kadam, in his inaugural address said, "The real challenge is to provide banking facilities to a common man in a cost effective manner. The right technology blended with the right manpower will pave way for a highly profitable proposition for banks and customers."

 

"Indian banks should be world leaders in the use of information technology (IT) for outstanding results. With rapid strides being taken by banks in the large scale implementation of IT for leveraging their business goals and CRM, I hope this dream will soon be a reality," emphasized Mr. G.Padmanabhan, chief general manger in-charge, Department of Information Technology, Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

 

He stressed on the need for concrete steps for information security (IS) and said, "If security is compromised in an IT environment, you may not live to debate on efficiency. Optimal security leading to efficiency is therefore, the need of the hour for IT leveraged banking business operations."

 

Citing the example of how call centres have leveraged their functional capabilities with the help of technology, Ms Lalita Gupte, joint managing director, ICICI Bank said that Internet banking and ATMs have also added productivity to the banks. ICICI cut the cost of operating per branch to 25 per cent in 2005 as against 95 per cent in 2000 by embracing technology. She drove home the point and said, "Technology is part of our core value proposition."

 

Smaller banks will merge and ATMs will play a major role in the banking industry in future. While people can only withdraw money from the ATMs at present, a new technology is being invented that will enable a person to deposit a cheque at the ATMs. Explaining the process, Mr Arvind Sharma, director, Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) said, "The cheque will be photocopied and sent to the drawee bank, that will verify the authenticity and sent it back to the drawer. This will not only save time, but will also save cost."

 

Global banking industry lead at IBM Business Consulting Services, Mr Sunny Banerjee added that matured markets in the West are adopting technology to replace the legacy system with modern ones. India, however, is not a major player in the field, as it is still in a nascent stage, he informed.

 

Mr Hanuman Tripathi, managing director, Infrasoft Technology informed about a major break through the company has achieved to abort crimes of anti money laundering. He said that Infrasoft has installed the technology at Bank Rakyat in Indonesia and that the company was getting a positive feed back on the product.

 

Mr Hitesh Thadani, sales manager APC informed that the major challenge for business continuity lies in unskilled manpower and that fact that "failure is known only when reported." Technology should be developed to plug these loopholes, he said.