Hi-Tech Banking
Information technology is one of the most important facilitators for the transformation of the Indian banking industry in terms of its transactions processing as well as for various other internal systems and processes. The various technological platforms used by banks for the conduct of their day to day operations, their manner of reporting and the way in which interbank transactions and clearing is affected has evolved substantially over the years. The technological evolution of the Indian banking industry has been largely directed by the various committees set up by the RBI and the government of India to review the implementation of technological change. No major breakthrough in technology implementation was achieved by the industry till the early 80s, though some working groups and committees made stray references to the need for mechanization of some banking processes. This was largely due to the stiff resistance by the very strong bank employees unions. The early 1980s were instrumental in the introduction of mechanisation and computerisation in Indian banks. This was the period when banks as well as the RBI went very slow on mechanisation, carefully avoiding the use of ‘computers’ to avoid resistance from employee unions. However, this was the critical period acting as the icebreaker, which led to the slow and steady move towards large scale technology adoption.
Computerisation The process of computerisation marked the beginning of all technological initiatives in the banking industry. Computerisation of bank branches had started with installation of simple computers to automate the functioning of branches, especially at high traffic branches. Thereafter, Total Branch Automation was in use, which did not involve bank level branch networking, and did not mean much to the customer.
Networking of branches are now undertaken to ensure better customer service. Core Banking Solutions (CBS) is the networking of the branches of a bank, so as to enable
Information technology is one of the most important facilitators for the transformation of the Indian banking industry in terms of its transactions processing as well as for various other internal systems and processes. The various technological platforms used by banks for the conduct of their day to day operations, their manner of reporting and the way in which interbank transactions and clearing is affected has evolved substantially over the years. The technological evolution of the Indian banking industry has been largely directed by the various committees set up by the RBI and the government of India to review the implementation of technological change. No major breakthrough in technology implementation was achieved by the industry till the early 80s, though some working groups and committees made stray references to the need for mechanization of some banking processes. This was largely due to the stiff resistance by the very strong bank employees unions. The early 1980s were instrumental in the introduction of mechanisation and computerisation in Indian banks. This was the period when banks as well as the RBI went very slow on mechanisation, carefully avoiding the use of ‘computers’ to avoid resistance from employee unions. However, this was the critical period acting as the icebreaker, which led to the slow and steady move towards large scale technology adoption.
Computerisation The process of computerisation marked the beginning of all technological initiatives in the banking industry. Computerisation of bank branches had started with installation of simple computers to automate the functioning of branches, especially at high traffic branches. Thereafter, Total Branch Automation was in use, which did not involve bank level branch networking, and did not mean much to the customer.
Networking of branches are now undertaken to ensure better customer service. Core Banking Solutions (CBS) is the networking of the branches of a bank, so as to enable