RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan called for leveraging technology to achieve financial inclusion. More and more persons should be brought within the reach of financial institutions. Banks should try to understand the profile of customers better and design products which do not tax their understanding much - be it insurance, basic bank account or payment of remittances.
Delivering the keynote address at the 10 edition of the Banking Technology Excellence awards of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) here on Wednesday, he said affordable excellence was the need of the hour. Technology should be affordable, transparent and not take people for a ride. Recently, the RBI had put out consumer code and expected the banks to adhere to it. The code put the onus of determining what was suitable for individuals on banks.
“Collect information, do analytics and figure out the suitability,” Dr. Rajan told banks.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said the RBI would be issuing guidelines for small finance banks in the next few weeks. They could cater to small customers across the country. He wanted the mobile companies, software companies and retail houses to set up payment banks. They would not do any credit functions but allow safe transactions. A viable mode for them would be to tie up with regular commercial banks, he said.
The RBI Governor also talked about the customer protection code and customer literacy on banking transactions. He referred to the pitfalls of cyber security and asked people to be wary of messages which promised them a windfall.
Later, Dr. Rajan gave away banking technology awards in different categories to State Bank of India, Federal Bank, ICICI, Karur Vysya Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, South Indian Bank and Saraswat Cooperative Bank.
ADVERTISEMENT