Monday, September 10, 2012

BANKING - CHANGE REQUIRED TO STAY HEALTHY

                                                                                      - By MILAN K SINHA                                                                                                     
          In today's kaleidoscopic financial world, change is the only certainty. Nevertheless,   Banks are required to put in great deal  of efforts to maintain and consolidate their basic role  as collector of deposits and dispenser of credit besides increasing fee based revenue by rendering various ancillary services. For this to happen profitably,all the planning, process and people ought to be configured around the customer. As such, greater emphasis is to be laid on a totally customer-centric approach. Innovative & effective marketing tools and strategies are to be fashioned and put to practice to the level of excellence.

         Sensing the importance of not only the customer service but also the customer satisfaction & finally customer delight, Banks, private & public alike, took many steps at policy level. Some of these initiatives are implemented fully, but some are still to be pursued & followed up sincerely. The emphasis of Narsimhan Committee on competitive efficiency also resulted in enhanced competition among the players in the financial service market. The branches opened by private & foreign Banks (though mainly in cities & small towns) offer ambience and personalised services that are somewhat different from those of an average PSU Bank branch. The far greater emphasis of these  new age Banks on state of art technology, banking convenience and comparatively better staff responsiveness have given them a definite edge over their PSU rivals.

          It is however, heartening to note that over the last couple of years the PSU Banks in general even with their manifold constraints and without parity in level playing field, have come up significantly in catering to the changing needs of the customers not only in metropolitan and urban areas but also in semi-urban and even in remotest rural areas. Now, with Core Banking solution being in place, these Govt. controlled Banks too are trying to offer customer friendly services.

         Regardless of these IT related conveniences, of course not without some hiccups, there is a need to improvise further and a bit faster the systems and procedures together with mindset of the implementing machinery to ensure a more dynamic system in order to keep pace with this reality that today's customers have options to choose & change the Bank for realization of  better banking experiences.

         Pl. post your comments & views on the subject. All the Best. 

*I shall be taking up other related issues in my next posts.    

8 comments:

  1. Sir,
    This reminds me one of your sayings,"Only change is constant." The changes are clearly visible in Banking services nowadays. But there is long way to go. Economy wise India is one of the superpowers in the world and Banks need to demonstrate it.

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    1. Thanks a lot for reading the post & sharing your point of view. Good health of Banks of the country is one of the major factors to keep the economy growing.Keep reading , sharing & commenting. All the Best.

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  2. Automation & technological upgradetion has definitely improved
    customer service to a great extent & helped integrating with global banking system but there is much to be desired primerily becouse of deficiency in human factor, specialy among nationalised banks. To my mined this is because of faulty H.R policy.
    Mahima Prakash

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    1. Thanks a lot for your candid comments. You are very correct.In general, the HR policy of different Banks is to be reviewed urgently by an expert committee comprising of best HR experts of the industry. Regulator can re-visit this issue by analyzing the policy vs implementation status of HR issues in the Banks without delay. Pl. keep commenting. All the Best.

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  3. Sir
    Today Indian banks is in position to put India in superpower position. For this every Bank and every branch of bank is doing Best.But there is still good chance to do more basically in HR, IT and customer service.
    Hoping for best.
    Sanjay K Sinha

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    1. Thanks for reading the post & sharing your views on the subject. As I know & appreciate, only change is permanent, the needful is required to be done by all concerned on an on-going basis. All the Best.

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  4. the competition is further going to be tough among banks after the interbank transferability of Bank accounts of customers as recently announced by RBI,is implemented.the executives sholud be innovative and they should post right people at HO level so that rules /guidlines are prepared for bettermnt of the BAnk,for betterment of customer service. G P Tripathi

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    1. Thanks a lot for reading & sharing your point of view. In a fast changing financial world, matching initiatives to address the issues are very necessary. Keep reading & reacting. All the Best.

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