Digitisation in alignment with technology is ensuring massive changes across the BFSI sector and in future human touch points are going to reduce further, say experts at the recently concluded Elets 3rd BFSI Summit in Goa.
The summit was inaugurated by Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology and Elections, Government of Haryana and Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology and Elections, Government of Haryana.
Other eminent personalities namely Padma Jaiswal, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Puducherry, B Raj Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Indian Banks’ Association and LR Ramchandran, CGM – Financial Inclusion & Banking Technology, NABARD participated in the inaugural session and shared their expert insights on reinventing financial services.
Sharing his views on how technology is transforming sector and why customer care services are significant before tech implementation, Ankur Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology and Elections, Government of Haryana said ,“Technology has indeed transformed banking but I still feel that there are a lot of areas that needs intervention when it comes to offering convenient options for consumers. Today if you want to lodge a complaint pertaining to any theft or want to put up a service request, you will be made to call the customer care service. The customer care service rather than helping you out with your problem will keep you waiting for a long time, transferring your call from one department to other.”
“In my view, it is important to offer better and hassle-free customer service options for the consumers much prior to implementing world-class technologies,” added Gupta.
Emphasising on the reintroduction of old devices into a new avatar with technological innovations, Rajagopal Devara, Principal Secretary, Department of Finance (Reforms), Government of Maharashtra said, “Innovation in terms of technology is taking us back to the older times. Earlier, thumb impression was the only source of authentication and today also we rely on thumb impression for the final layer of verification. While a lot of things are getting obsolete, technology is reinventing a lot by transforming the older ones into a new advanced version. Smartphones, for example, have replaced several devices such as watches, music players etc.”
While technology is expanding the banking operations, it is also opening up new vistas for the entire BFSI sector, catering to all demands of the new-age customer from all sections of society.
“This conference is focused upon the Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) sector because not just banking but the complete BFSI sector has undergone massive changes due to technology. The sector is now extended to a lot of new segments apart from the financial genre as information technology is opening up new vistas for the industry. From urban to rural, banked to underbanked, BFSI industry is offering a bouquet of services that suit the requirements of all the consumers, said Padma Jaiswal, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Puducherry.
With innovation, human intervention in the BFSI sector is declining. Verifications are not undertaken by machines. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, are emerging as the new task force in banking.
“Banking is not an easy operation; it is a very complex activity. Digital transactions might look an easy activity but it involves a lot of touch points as far as cyber security measures are concerned. The sector has undergone a massive change. Banking activities that earlier needed human intervention, are now handled by machines,” said LR Ramchandran, CGM – Financial Inclusion & Banking Technology, NABARD.
“When technology was introduced in banking and operations started witnessing paradigm shift, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took several transformative measures to reinvent the entire banking industry and take it to the digital platform, at the same time ensuring safety and security.As a result, today we have a bouquet of payments options for both individuals and institutions. After introducing automation we moved on to the Core Banking Systems (CBS). CBS is the foundations of the payments systems that we have today,” added Ramchandran.
Explaining the rising significance of technology in BFSI sector, B Raj Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Indian Banks’ Association said, “Earlier we used to define eras into BC and AD but in recent times we now perceive it as BT (Before Technology) and AD (After Technology). I represent the BT era and I am privileged for witnessing this entire transformation in banking in alignment with technology in India. Today, we cannot imagine a human being without a smart phone. This change is huge and I am thankful that I could witness both the eras.”
“Technology has now given you the power of convenience. It also helps you in controlling the number of frauds associated with your cards and bank accounts. You can choose to maintain low balance in your particular card and then transfer the required amount to it through mobile banking whenever you need it,” added Kumar.
The summit was organised by Elets Technomedia and The Banking & Finance Post was the Knowledge Partner. July-August issue of THe Banking & Finance Post magazine was also unveiled during the Summit.
The conference was supported by Fintech Valley Vizag, Red Hat participated as a supporting partners, Darktrace as cyber security partner, Fortinet as enterprise security partner, Tata communications as digital transformation partner, Suse as cloud and storage technology partner, Winmagic as cloud security partner, ClicQA as software testing partner, InfoAxon Technologies and Liferay as digital engagement partner, Bill Cloud and Vigyanlabs as associate partners.
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