Post offices in urban centres will implement core banking solutions in a year, said M.S. Ramanujan, Postmaster-General, Chennai City Region.
“We have started taking measures to move towards core banking which would give lot of benefits such as online transactions,” he said at a function organised by Commissionerate of Small Savings as part of the Women's Savings Day Celebrations 2010 here recently.
“For financial inclusion, there is nothing better than post office network,” he said. It was time policymakers came up with more competitive financial products that suited the urban market, he said.
There was huge outflow from schemes such as Kisan Vikas Patra and National Savings Certificate, he said.
To tackle competition, the Commissionerate of Small Savings has started to market products aggressively and recently produced 30 short films to disseminate information on small savings. Some schemes such as post office monthly income scheme and recurring deposit continued to attract more people, said Mr. Ramanujan.
The gross collection of Rs.3,300 crore have been made under small savings scheme in Chennai city during 2009-2010. There was an overall growth of 60 per cent during the year when compared to last fiscal.
Around 40,000 small savings agents were underutilised and there was a need to tap their potential, said C. Uma Shankar, Commissioner of Small Savings. The T. Nagar post office was declared the best post office in Chennai city for the year 2007-2008. R.Venkataraman, Senior Superintendent of post offices, Chennai City Central Division, received the award. “The work on core banking at the ground level has reached the final stage,” he said.
