The Hindu Business Line : `Technology can take banks to rural areas'

Contrary to the popular perception (or misconception) that technology leads to elite banking, useful only for high net worth individuals and corporates, it can be effectively used in a country like India to take banking services to the villages and cover 75 per cent of the population, Dr K.C. Chakrabarthy, CMD of the Indian Bank, said.

He was delivering a lecture on `Technology in banking' at the Gayatri College of Engineering at Madhurawada near here on Monday.

He said transaction cost could be brought down drastically by using technology and even in India, where computer literacy had not spread much, ways and means could be found to make tech-based banking possible.

"For instance, banking kiosks could be opened. Public sector banks should seek to make use of technology to improve their services. It is not for the private banks alone. It is no longer a matter of choice, but compulsion. Indian Bank has brought 75 per cent of its business under core banking solutions within a year or so," he said.

He said that in future a fine balance would have to be struck between brick and mortar banking and mouse and click banking. In that context, engineering students, especially those in the IT field, would have to play a crucial role, he said.

Earlier in the day, he inaugurated an ATM at the Seetampeta branch here. Prof Somaraju, the secretary of Gayatri Vidya Parishad, and Prof Gandhi, the Principal, also spoke.