CORE or CORE Banking is a very important terminology used in Indian banking industry. The term CORE is used in two perspectives in Indian banking industry.
1) First Perspective of Core Banking
In the first perspective CORE stands for Centralized Online Real-time Environment (CORE). It is a system of centralized banking under which all banks use a centralized data-centre for all their banking transactions. It can be said that all banks under this system share all information about banking transactions conducted by them. What is important is that all transactions are done in a real-time environment under CORE banking and all transactions are reflected in the central banking servers of the CORE system. Therefore CORE from this perspective means bringing highest level of transparency in all banking transactions by establishing a high-technology network of banks.
2) Second Perspective of Core Banking
Another perspective for CORE banking is used in Indian banking. In this perspective CORE Banking refers to the banking operations with retail and small businessmen, which are sometimes considered as the most-important or core segment for banks. Indian banking industry in this perspective simply refers to business operations with small traders and businessmen as its Core Banking operation. As far as banking with large business houses and businessmen is concerned, it is called by a different name – Corporate Banking
CORE Banking Solutions (CBS)
Many times we can observe a board “CBS” or “CBS Branch” written outside a bank branch in India. CBS means Core Banking Solutions and it refers to the first perspective as discussed above. It is a modern platform established for Indian Banking industry with an objective of increasing the productivity and efficiency of banks, reducing manual errors which are committed while recording a banking transaction and increasing transparency in all banking transactions. CBS has completely changed banking scenario