The Hindu Business Line : Kerala Govt lobbying banks to aid NRKs

THE State Government is hoping to get assistance from nationalised banks in financing a programme for "gainfully engaging" non-residents who are being wooed "like never before" to return and set up industries back home.

Stating this, the Minister for Information and Non-Resident Keralite Affairs, Mr M.M. Hassan, said he has been receiving a lot of complaints from non-residents about how their hard earned foreign currency savings have depreciated in terms of tapering-off yields subsequent to the Reserve Bank enforcing the new interest rate regime. By the apex bank's own admission, the non-resident Keralites have been sending home the equivalent of Rs 24,000 crore on an annual basis.

"They are now a worried lot, and can't be faulted for thinking different in order that their savings yielded the best possible returns. It is in this context that the State Government is looking to get them to invest their savings in productive enterprises back home in what could be a mutually beneficial exercise," Mr Hassan said, while inaugurating the ATM and e-banking services at a local branch of Syndicate Bank.

The Government was also concentrating now more on the service sector, especially in view of the human resource potential available on hand. This is being taken up as a follow-up on the global investors meet held last year in Kochi. The accent will be on small-scale enterprises with a lot of cumulative employment potential.

Mr Michael Bastian, Chairman and Managing Director, Syndicate Bank, said the bank was gearing up to competition. Ten years ago, the most harassed customer was the savings bank customer. In most branches, encashing the cheque was taking a lot of time. Nobody was available to take care of the saving bank customers' interests. The branch manager would be buffeted with 4 or 5 customers at any given point in time.He said the bank has come out with a range of new products in recent times. All the loan products are branded now; and all the people working in the branches are familiar with each product. There is even an in-house programme called "manager-to-messenger". Each and every person in the branch is now supposed to know who's doing what, and the products the bank is selling. Therefore, the customer need not go to either the branch manager or officer to get the latest update; he just need to approach the single-point customer service counter, where all information would be made available.