Information Technology in Banking Services Trends, Issues and Challenges

Introduction
Indian banking today is witnessing drastic changes. The liberalization of the financial sector and banking sector reforms have exposed the Indian banks to a new economic environment that is characterized by increased competition and new regulatory requirements. As a result, there is a transformation in every sphere of activities of the banks in India, especially in Governance, nature of business, style of functioning and delivery mechanisms. The new generation banks brought the necessary competition into the industry and spearheaded changes towards higher utilization of technology, improved customer service and innovative products. In spite of their strong and larger network, public sector banks proved to be surprisingly quick and flexible to meet the emerging needs of customers. Change is the order of the day.

Nature of Change in the Banking Industry

The changes in the political, economical, social, cultural and environmental perspective can be seen in business environment too. Above all, the business scenario is highly influenced by the changes in the needs and aspirations of the people. The human factors such as, the mindset of the people, ethics and values, social system, lifestyle, work culture etc. are greatly induce the different sections of the people for changing their day-to-day requirements. But today, the degree of such changes is so fast and more frequently experienced by them. Therefore, the consumer status is changed from; isolated to connected, unaware to well-informed, passive to active. Consumers now seek to exercise their influence in every walk of the business system, interact with firms and co-create value. As the outreach is enlarged in the industry with the increased number of banks and wider network, the customer demands convenience, comfort, speed, cost- effective and quality services in the banking operations. In the recent years the Indian banking industry saw a host of new faces called new generation banks entering with their innovative strategies. All these bankers are generally slim in structure but heavily using the technology and multi-channel facilities to reach out to a large section of the customers.

Information Technology and Banking Services The Trend

In this context, Information Technology and Enabled Services (ITES) have emerged as the integrator; assisting banks in managing transformation that takes place continuously. RBI has taken several initiatives with the broad objective of providing systems which impact beneficially on efficient housekeeping in banks, better customer service and overall systemic efficiency. The Reserve Bank has assigned priority to the up gradation of technological infrastructure in the Indian financial system. The RBIs role in the transformational of IT deployment in banking has been commendable. RBI established in 1996 with a vision and foresight, the Institute for Research and Development in Banking Technology (IDRBT). In order to establish an efficient, cost-effective and dependable communication backbone, the Indian Financial Network (INFINET) has been set up. About 150 banks, primary dealers and mutual funds have become members. Technology has a definitive role in facilitating transactions in the banking sector and the impact of technology implementation has resulted in the introduction of new products and services by various banks in India. During the last decade, payment services offered by banks to the common persons as well as the corporate bodies have improved substantially. It is partly due to increased use of technology in service delivery and partly due to procedural changes necessitated in the wake of competition amongst the banks. With the introduction of electronic banking, banks are moving their focus of payments from the physical presence of money to the use of electronic money. Electronic banking refers to the use of technology which allows customers to access banking services electronically whether it is to pay bills, transfer funds, view accounts or to obtain information and advices. It refers to the electronic services that are made available to the customers through phone, personal computer, television and the Internet. Customers can perform banking transactions such as balance enquiries, bill payments, transaction histories, and transfer of money between accounts, obtain quotes and submit equity option and mutual fund offers without having to step into the office on the branch. Payments can be made in India in the form of cash, cheque, demand drafts, credit cards, debit cards and also by means of giving electronic instructions to the banker who will make such a payment on behalf of his customers.

Developmental Role of the RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the central bank of the country has been playing this developmental role and has taken several initiatives for a safe, secure, sound and efficient payment system under electronic banking. Payment systems are used by individuals, banks, companies, governments, etc. to make payments to one another. In other words, anybody who has to make a payment to any one else can use one or the other form of payment system to make such a payment for which IT enabled channels crate a platform.

Product and Process Innovation in Banking Services Levered by ITES

The new private sector banks have the technology to access customer date housed in their central warehouses. They are beginning to use it for generating new business leads. Public sector banks are making a beeline for Core Banking Solutions (CBS) the technology that enables them to integrate all customer channels seamlessly. Branches are becoming delivery channels and employees salesmen. Banks are going beyond conventional banking and offering a lot more than vanilla deposits and loans. Following are the innovative services offered by the industry in the recent past: 1. Electronic Payment Services E Cheques Nowadays we are hearing about e-governance, e-mail, e-commerce, e-tail etc. In the same manner, a new technology is being developed in US for introduction of e-cheque, which will eventually replace the conventional paper cheque. India, as harbinger to the introduction of e-cheque, the Negotiable Instruments Act has already been amended to include; Truncated cheque and E-cheque instruments. Electronic payments can also be made in the form of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) and through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). Many banks in India have begun to offer certain banking services through Internet that facilitate transfer of funds electronically. 2. Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, introduced in India since March 2004, is a system through which electronic instructions can be given by banks to transfer funds from their account to the account of another bank. The RTGS system is maintained and operated by the RBI and provides a means of efficient and faster funds transfer among banks facilitating their financial operations. As the name suggests, funds transfer between banks takes place on a Real Time basis. Therefore, money can reach the beneficiary instantaneously and the beneficiarys bank has the responsibility to credit the beneficiarys account within two hours. 3. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is a system whereby anyone who wants to make payment to another person / company etc. can approach his bank and make cash payment or give instructions / authorization to transfer funds directly from his own account to the bank account of the receiver / beneficiary. Complete details such as the receivers name, bank account number, account type (savings or current account), bank name, city, branch name etc should be furnished to the bank at the time of requesting for such transfers so that the amount reaches the beneficiaries account correctly and faster. RBI is the service provider for EFT. 4. Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) is a retail payment system that can be used to make bulk payments / receipts of a similar nature especially where each individual payment is of a repetitive nature and of relatively smaller amount. This facility is meant for companies and government departments to make/receive large volumes of payments rather than for funds transfers by individuals. 5. Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) is the most popular devise in India, which enables the customers to withdraw their money 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It is a devise that allows customer who has an ATM card to perform routine banking transactions without interacting with a human teller. In addition to cash withdrawal, ATMs can be used for payment of utility bills, funds transfer between accounts, deposit of cheques and cash into accounts, balance enquiry etc. 6. Credit / Debit cards Credit / Debit cards are being widely used in the country as they provide a convenient form of making payments for goods and services without the use of cheques and cash. Banks issue credit cards to their customers. The merchant establishment who accepts credit / debit card payments will claim the amount from the customers bank through his own bank. For a customer the question may arise; how is a Debit Card different from Credit Card? Debit Card is a direct account access card. (Amount transacted gets debited immediately). The amount permitted to be transacted in debit card will be to the extent of the amount standing to the credit of the card users account. On the other hand, a credit card involves provision of credit to the card user, which is paid by the card user on receipt of the bill either in full or partially in installments. 7. Point of Sale Terminal

Point of Sale Terminal is a computer terminal that is linked online to the computerized customer information files in a bank and magnetically encoded plastic transaction card that identifies the customer to the computer. During a transaction, the customers account is debited and the retailers account is credited by the computer for the amount of purchase. 8. Tele Banking Tele Banking facilitates the customer to do entire non-cash related banking on telephone. Under this devise Automatic Voice Recorder is used for simpler queries and transactions. For complicated queries and transactions, manned phone terminals are used. 9. Corporate Banking Terminal Corporate Banking Terminal enables the large corporate customers can log into the banks database and have access to their accounts/ transactions from their business houses. 10. Electronic Data Interchange Electronic Data Interchange is the electronic exchange of business documents like purchase order, invoices, shipping notices, receiving advices etc. in a standard, computer processed, universally accepted format between trading partners. EDI can also be used to transmit financial information and payments in electronic form. EDI has resulted in huge savings in costs of exchanging trading information. 11. Implications The banks were quickly responded to the changes in the industry; especially the new generation banks. The continuance of the trend has re-defined and re-engineered the banking operations as whole with more customization through leveraging technology. As technology makes banking convenient, customers can access banking services and do banking transactions any time and from any ware. The importance of physical branches is going down. Thus the changes have the following implications:

Banking

Anywhere

Anytime

Anyplace

 and Invitation to New Instruments and Arrival of New Risks system

Timeless and Placeless Banking Banking at Convenience Dismantling of Physical Structure Goodbye to Traditional Instruments Disappearance of Conventional Risk Leading to Currency-less Monetary

Regulation and Supervision

The Board for regulation and supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS) is a subcommittee of the Central Board of the RBI and is the highest policy making body on payment system. The Board is assisted by a technical committee called National Payments Council (NPC) with eminent experts in the field as members. The Board as well as the council is assisted by a newly created department the Department of Payment and settlement Systems (DPSS). The Board has been entrusted with the responsibility to authorize, prescribe policies and set standards for all existing and future payment systems in the country. The Board also has the powers to determine membership criteria to these systems and related policies. The customer may approach the bank concerned to redress the complaint. In case of lack of response / satisfactory redressal by the bank, the customer may approach the Grievance Redressal Cell in the local RBI office, if any. The customer may also approach the office of the Banking Ombudsman for redressal of his complaint. Most people today convinced that the Information Technology is going to hold the key of future banking. These developments changed the course of banking in India as it altered the basic platform of the Indian banking. This would not have made possible with out the IT revolution. However, technology driven banking can be traced in; hyper competition, shrinking margins and need to reduce cost, meeting the changing customer expectations, offer better and improved products and services, simplify the process and procedures for better management, reduce or alter the risk, resource

constraints such as physical and or financial, pressure from regulators or the conglomeration of few of the above or all.

Issues and Challenges

For the last ten years, technology has been the driving force in the banking industry. As foreign and private banks poured huge sums of money to counter the branch advantage of public sector banks, they discovered that technology gives them a large competitive advantage. Technology is helping the banks to reduce transaction cost and improve efficiency. ITES becomes Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the many players in the industry as it facilitates the innovations in all functional management activities whether accounting and finance, production and designing, marketing and customer management, research and development activities, and so on. In the last decade banks have invested heavily in the technology such as e-commerce, data warehousing and data mining, customer relationship management solution software, knowledge management systems etc. Some are investing in it to drive the business growth, while others are having no option but to invest, to stay in business. The choice of right channel, justification of IT investment on ROI, e-governance, customer relationship management, security concerns, technological obsolescence, mergers and acquisitions, penetration of IT in rural areas, and outsourcing of IT operations are the major challenges and issues in the use of IT in banking operations. The main challenge, however, remains to motivate the customers to increasingly make use of IT while transacting with banks. For small banks, heavy investment requirement is the compressing need in addition to their capital requirements. The coming years will see even more investment in banking technology, but reaping ROI will call for more strategic thinking. Everyone today is convinced that the technology is going to hold the key to future of banking. The achievements in the banking today would not have make possible without IT revolution. Therefore, the key point is while changing to the current environment the banks has to understand properly the trigger for change and accordingly find out the suitable departure point for the change.

Conclusion
The banking today is re-defined and re-engineered with the use of Information Technology and it is sure that the future of banking will offer more sophisticated services to the customers with the continuous product and process innovations. Thus, there is a paradigm shift form the sellers market to buyers market in the industry and finally it effected at the bankers level to change their approach from conventional banking to convenience banking and mass banking to class banking. The shift has also increased the degree of accessibility of a common man to bank for his variety of needs and requirements.

****** References:
1. 2. Mittal R.K, and Dhingra Sanjay (2007), Technology in Banking Sector: Mariappan V, (2005), Changing the Way of Baning in India :

Issues and Challenges, Vinimaya, Vol.XXVII, No. 4, Jan-March, 2007, pp 14-22 Technology as a Driver What is the Trigger?, Vinimaya, Vol.XXVI, No. 2, JulySeptember, 2005, pp 26-34 3. 4. 5. 6. Narayan Tarun (2004), Banking on Technology, Indian Mangement, Vol. Mohan Chandran.K (2003), Electronic Cheque - The Emerging Payment Arvind Sharma (2007), IT in Banking Promise of More Benefits, The Sathish.D and Bala Bharathi. Y (2007), Indian Banking 43, Issue 8, August, 2004, pp.18-28 System, IBA Bulletin, Vol XXV, No.7, July 2003, pp. 6-18 Hindu Survey of Indian Industry-2007, pp.54-58 Industry:Challenging Times Ahead, Chartered Financial Analyst, February 2007, pp.68-70 7. Manoj P.K. (2003), Retail Banking: Strategies for Success in the Emerging Scenario, IBA Bulletin, November 2003, Vol.XXV, No.1, pp.18-21

Information Technology in Banking Services Trends, Issues and Challenges

Abstract
Indian banking today is witnessing drastic changes. Technology has a definitive role in facilitating transactions in the banking sector and the impact of technology implementation has resulted in the introduction of new products and services by various banks in India. For the last ten years, technology has been the driving force in the banking industry. As foreign and private banks poured huge sums of money to counter the branch advantage of public sector banks, they discovered that technology gives them a large competitive advantage. Some are investing in it to drive the business growth, while others are having no option but to invest, to stay in business. Everyone today is convinced that the technology is going to hold the key to future of banking. The achievements in the banking today would not have make possible without IT revolution. In this backdrop, the paper attempts to trace the latest trends and the role of IT in the banking services, its implications, issues and challenges.

Authors:

S. Dharmarajan,
Faculty, Institute of Cooperative Management-Kannur (ICMK) (Unit of National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT)New Delhi and the Extension Centre for MBA Programme of Kannur University) Parassinikkadavu, Kannur-670 563 (Kerala) & Co-authored by Dr.T.Srinivasan, Reader in Commerce, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University.

(Paper Has Been Presented At The National Conference on Recent Trends in Financial Services held By the Department Of Commerce, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University held on 12th October, 2007)