The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector in India has been rapidly adopting technology to improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, and stay ahead of competition.
Be it the customer experience, where technology has enabled financial institutions
to provide customers with a seamless and personalized experience, from opening an account to making transactions and seeking financial advice or digitization of operations that helped financial institutions to digitize their operations, reducing manual errors and increasing efficiency. This has also led to increased automation, resulting in faster processing times and lower costs; technology has played a pivotal role.
Not only this, technology has enabled financial institutions to implement robust security measures to protect customer data and transactions, reducing the risk of fraud and cyber-attacks.
And above all it aided the financial inclusion by making financial services more accessible, particularly in rural and underbanked areas, through mobile banking and digital financial services.
Overall, technology has transformed the BFSI sector, making it more convenient, efficient, secure, and accessible for customers.
Being a responsible B2B media platform, that has been organising knowledge sharing platform for more than 18 years, we at Elets decided to organise a series that will dedicatedly underline the role of emerging technologies across the BFSI sector and would hold discussions on trends that are and will be redefining the industry in near future.
With this we announced the first BFSI CTO Summit in 2016 and with the continual support from the industry all these years; we have successfully organized siX editions of the series. We are happy that the series is now successfully entering its seventh chapter after braving through two virtual conferences amid the pandemic.
As we are about to enter the next chapter, let’s go down the memory lane and revisit the journey once again.
INTRODUCTION:
In August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Prandhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana as a flagship mission to boost the cause of Financial Inclusion built around an integrated approach to ensure about complete financial inclusion to the underbanked segments of the country.
In his speech, he stated that “the economic resources of the country should be utilized for the well-being of the poor. The change will commence from this point.”
So, what is financial inclusion and why is it significant to ensure the comprehensive development of a country.
Financial inclusion has been defined as “the process of ensuring access to financial services, timely and adequate credit for vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost”. (Committee on Financial Inclusion – Chairman: Dr C Rangarajan, RBI, 2008).
To track the history of financial inclusion in India, we will have to travel back to year 1969, when Bank Nationalization. Priority sector lending schemes were initiated and also Regional Rural Banks were established.
Not only this, during this time Service Area Approach was adopted and Self Help Group-Bank linkages were introduced to the people.
While these moves definitely supported financial inclusion, introduction of the Banking Correspondents model in 2006 proved to be significant towards the expansion of financial inclusion in remote locations. This was one of the revolutionary moves that brought in the concept of technology in the banking sector especially from the end user point of view.
Coming back to 2016, the Jan Dhan Yojana offered universal access to banks and banking accounts with overdraft facility.
The Jan Dhan Scheme also helped the bankers in promoting credit culture across the underbanked population. This move also helped the easy credit low to rural areas.
Apart from this 2016 also saw the introduction of the Aadhar Act as a money bill which aided towards ensuring targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies related benefits.
The Act came up as a legal support o the already existing Aadhar Unique Identification number project.
BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) which is a mobile application created and developed by National Payments Corporation of India based on Unified Payment Interface was also introduced in 2016. The BHIM helped facilitate digital payments directly through banks and
promoted the concept of digital payments, underling the emerging role of technology and mobile phone for Indians.
BFSI CTO SUMMIT
Keeping the emerging use of technology across the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector in mind in 2016, we at Elets Technomedia Elets Technomedia announced a day-long ‘BFSI CTO Summit’ in August 2016 in Mumbai. The conference was designed to bring together CTOs of leading commercial banks across India, senior level executives, technology innovators and solution providers to understand emerging trends of technology adopted by banks, share innovative ideas and solutions and build network.
Also Read | Elets 7th BFSI CTO Summit: Underlining the significance of technologies
The day-long national level summit was tailored to focus on conversing and collaborating through a series of informal conversations led by the summit attendees themselves.
The summit featured discussions around Role of IT for better customer engagement in BFSI Sector, Transforming Customer Engagement in Payment Ecosystem, Reshaping IT to Fuel Digital Banking Transformation and a lot more.
The conference was inaugurated by Dr K Shivaji, former Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI, Dr Sanjay Chahande, former Deputy Director General, UIDAI, Government of India, Mrityunjay Mahapatra, former Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India and Shiv Kumar Bhasin, former Chief Technology Officer, State Bank of India.
2nd BFSI CTO SUMMIT, AWARDS & EXPO 2017
Technology has brought a complete paradigm shift in the functioning of banks and delivery of banking services. In its efforts to highlight the growing interface of technology in the banking domain Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd organised ‘2nd BFSI CTO Summit’ on July 27, 2017, at Vivanta by Taj-President, Mumbai. Shiv Kumar Bhasin, Chief Technology Officer (the then), State Bank of India was the Programme Chair of the summit. The summit helped showcase a never seen before amalgamation of CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, GM-ITs of the leading commercial banks across India, senior level executives, technology innovators and solution providers, who discussed and shared their expertise on the issues pertaining to the technological innovations adopted by the banks and financial institutions.
3rd BFSI CTO SUMMIT 2018
Technology implementation is a serious business and understanding the need
to ensure detailed discussions on the same, Elets Technomedia announced the 3rd BFSI CTO Summit, Goa, a unique residential and networking conference for CXOs from across the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Sector, on August 11-12, 2018.
This two day mega congregation witnessed the presence of honchos from the leading commercial banks, senior level executives, technology innovators and solution providers, who will discuss and share their expertise on the issues pertaining to the technological innovations adopted by the banks and financial institutions.
4th BFSI CTO SUMMIT
In a bid to redefine the role of decision makers from across the BFSI sector and to understand the future course of action of the financial institution in sync with technology, we organized the 4th edition of BFSI CTO Summit in Mumbai on 29 August 2019.
This premier confluence highlighted the latest trends, innovations and deployments made across the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector.
5th BFSI CTO SUMMIT
Visualizing banking in the new normal, that’s how we themed the 5th chapter of BFSI CTO Summit. Amid the uncertain times, in a bid to maintain resilience and continuity, we organized our first virtual summit. The summit received a lot of support from the industry and significant discussions on topics such as Intelligent Automation in Bank-Banking During the New Normal, API Banking, BaaS, Neo-Banks: The New Banking Lexicon, Improving Customer- Centric Approach-The Need to Level-Up, Staying Ahead with Cyber Hygiene, Role of Data Science in Risk Management and more were conducted during the conference.
6th BFSI CTO SUMMIT
The pandemic re-iterated the importance of the banking & financial sector to take up digital transformation to remain resilient. The industry is going through a significant shift as it prepares to enter the next major phase of digital transformation. This has prompted the BFSI industry to upgrade their technological functions in order to prepare for the digitization of their front and back ends.
Building on the legacy of the past five years, Elets Technomedia & The Banking & Finance organized the 6th Annual BFSI CTO Summit, a virtual gathering, on 10-11 February 2022. Hosted under the theme of ‘Driving Innovation through Disruptive Technologies’,
the summit witnessed the high-level gathering of experts from the industry, who continuously helped optimize their current systems as well as those who are looking to implement new technologies.
CONCLUSION:
It is likely that technology will continue to play a crucial role in the growth and development of the BFSI sector in 2023. Here are a few trends that are expected to shape the industry:
Increased adoption of AI and machine learning: Financial institutions are expected to invest more in AI and machine learning technologies to improve customer experience and operational efficiency, as well as detect fraud and manage risk more effectively.
Expansion of digital financial services: With more and more people accessing financial services through their smartphones and other digital devices, financial institutions are expected to continue expanding their digital offerings, such as mobile banking and digital wallets.
Growth of fintech: The fintech industry is expected to continue growing, with new startups emerging to offer innovative financial products and services, while established financial institutions are likely to partner with fintech companies to leverage their expertise and technology.
Also Read | Elets 7th BFSI CTO Summit: Tech Innovation Awards
Increased use of blockchain: The use of blockchain is expected to grow as financial institutions explore its potential to improve transparency and security in areas such as remittances and trade finance.
Overall, technology is expected to play a major role in driving the growth and development of the BFSI sector in 2023 and beyond. And with this, we strongly believe that our BFSI CTO Summit will continue to underline technology to connect experts and build a digitally empowered Bharat for all.
Elets The Banking and Finance Post Magazine has carved out a niche for itself in the crowded market with exclusive & unique content. Get in-depth insights on trend-setting innovations & transformation in the BFSI sector. Best offers for Print + Digital issues! Subscribe here➔ www.eletsonline.com/subscription/
