The Hindu Business Line : Govt to be supportive of public sector banks

Union Bank opens tech centre: Mr P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, and Mr M.V. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director, Union Bank of India, at a function in Mumbai on Monday. –

Shobha Kannan

Mumbai, Nov. 5 Public sector banks have largely driven the growth in the banking industry in spite of the several constraints faced by them, said Mr P Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister.

“We have given the public sector banks greater autonomy. In spite of a number of constraints, these banks have shown strong leadership and innovation,” he said. Mr Chidambaram was speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of Union Bank of India’s technology centre here on Monday.

The Finance Minister said that the Indian banking industry was among the best in the world. “Our non-performing assets are the smallest and the net interest margin and return on assets are of substantial standards,” he said.

He also said that the government would continue to extend support to these banks and would want them to perform better.

Emphasising the role of technology, he said that it was a key factor in bringing about greater financial inclusion. “We must push the frontiers of technology in order to speed up the process of financial inclusion,” he said.

Mr Chidambaram also suggested having a list of about 200-300 frequently asked questions and their answers to be placed on bank’s Web site so that customers could access it online. “This way we can achieve financial inclusion faster rather than going by the traditional method of opening branches to rope in customers,” he said.

Human resources form an integral part of innovation, he added. “As long as schools and colleges throw up first rate human resources and the banks are able to attract such talents to the industry, innovation is bound to happen,” he said.

The technology centre would host the bank’s data centre with high- end servers. The bank announced its plans to bring all its 2,400 branches under the core-banking platform by March 2008.

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