1. It gives me a great pleasure to be in your midst this
morning and I am delighted to participate in this function
which marks another important milestone in the development
of Andhra Bank.
2. I am indeed heartened to note the progress that the
Andhra Bank has made in the last few years and more
particularly in the year 1996-97 and as Mr.Narayanan
pointed out almost all parameters of operational efficiency
have improved during 1996-97. Mr. Narayanan, Mr.Ganiga and
their colleagues deserve our congratulations.
3. It is heartening that not only has productivity and
profitability improved but also the provision of credit to
priority sector has reached the target level. Social
banking has been combined with viable banking in an
excellent way.
4. Banking, as you all know, is undergoing far reaching
changes in India. In fact banking as a profession has
undergone or is undergoing rapid changes world over. The
fundamental business of banking may remain the same,
accepting funds for the purpose of lending. But the manner
in which this function is being performed, the kind of
instruments through which such facilities are made
available, have undergone tremendous change, consequent
upon the changes in computer and communication
technologies. Changes in computer and communication
technologies have revolutionised the way in which banking
is being done.
5. In fact computer and communication technology has
modified the way in which the present day society lives.
But the greatest impact of that has been in the area of
service industries and more particularly in banking
industry. Banks today operate in a more competitive
environment. There is not only competition among themselves
but there is competition with non-banks and various other
financial institutions. The competition is both on the
liability side and on the asset side. There are many other
institutions which offer deposit type facilities and on the
lending side there are many other institution which also
provide lending faciliti es.Therefore banks have now to
compete with a variety of institutions. And they can
survive in this competitive environment only if they are
able to introduce and innovate new products and new
services to meet the requirements of the people. Alongwith
the competitive environment, one must also note the fact
that customers of banks have also become demanding.
Customers are no longer satisfied with the way in which
services were being provided earlier. Customers who come to
the branch of a particular bank do not wait indefinitely.
They want to get the work done quickly whether it is in
terms of depositing money or encashing a cheque or draft.
They want the services to be performed very quickly, that
is why in the process of computerisation which we had
envisaged some years ago, importance was attached to branch
level computerisation. The branch provides the greatest
interface between the bank and the customer. That is why,
we recommended that one of the first steps a bank should do
is to have total computerisation of all the operations in
the branches.
6. I am happy to note from one of the notes that has been
handed over to me that 30 branches of Andhra Bank are fully
computerised and 89 branches are partially computerised.
I think it is very important because it is only when the
operations at the branch level are fully computerised it is
possible to do further processing very quickly. In fact
all the branches that are completely computerised should
also be connected to one another. Then the problem of inter
branch reconciliation will not be there. It is only
because operations are conducted manually at different
places, the process of reconciliation becomes difficult.
Therefore the first step should be to computerise all the
operations at branch level and the second step should be to
connect various branches of the bank. This is, what we
call, connectivity. First connecting the branches within
the city and later on connecting the branches in one city
with the branches elsewhere. This must be followed by
overall connectivity in terms of linking the branches not
only with one bank but with branches of other banks.
7. We are introducing a satellite based communication
system with a hub which will be located in Hyderabad in
order to effect speedy transfer of information among
branches of banks. VSAT, satellite based communication
system will be in operation very soon. I am indeed happy
that Andhra Bank has taken one more step in making the
credit cards more popular. Credit cards are already there
but as one of the notes points out, even after the
introduction of credit cards, there is a lot of manual
activities which are associated with credit cards.
8. With the introduction of terminal called EDC terminal
located in the various places, the credit card transactions
are immediately transmitted to the host terminal or host
computer so that the transaction
is immediately effected. The party who has credit card
will immediately get a receipt which goes with the
transaction.
9. I am quite sure the credit card system will become
more popular as a consequence of introduction of these
terminals. As Mr.Narayanan pointed out that a great part
of transactions going through the credit cards is in
foreign exchange. By linking with foreign computer
systems, it has been possible to give the same kind of
facility not only to the credit cards of the local banks
but also international credit cards.
10. I am very happy that the Andhra Bank has thought about
it, but we have a long way to go in terms of
computeriation of banking activities. We have to look at,
item by item and see how it can be computerised. As I have
repeatedly said, computerisation is not an end in itself.
Computerisation is a means towards providing improved
customer service. The customers must realise and recognise
that the introduction of computers has benefited them and
therefore we need to take care to see that the computer
based facility introduced is effectively made use of and
the benefits that must actually flow from the uses of such
computer facilities are actually available. It is
important to take care of it even as we are introducing
these facilities.
11. As I said that Andhra Bank has been doing well.
Customer service has been one of the strong points of
Andhra Bank and I am quite sure, the Andhra Bank will be
thinking of other things besides the credit card in terms
of extending the scope of computer based customer service.
One great thing is that change in the mindset of the people
working in the Bank, I can say this because for the last
twelve or thirteen years or more, I have been associated in
one way or the other with the process of computerisation in
the banking industry. We have come a long way from 1982 to
the present point. The mindset of the people has changed
and computers have also changed. Computers are no longer
mysterious. Computers have become highly user friendly, as
the term goes. You don't have to know a great deal about
it in order to make use of the computers. If you know a
few instructions, then you can make use of the computer. It
is no more difficult than using the typewriter. It is as
simple as that.
12. Computer based services will begin to occupy
increasingly an important part in the provision of customer
service.
13. I wish Andhra Bank all success in its efforts. I am
quite sure that the success achieved by Andhra Bank in
1996-97 in terms of improving operational efficiency will
be carried further in 1997-98 and in the years beyond. I
am quite sure that with the kind of leadership that Andhra
Bank has got this will not only a hope, but it will be a
reality. |