The Hindu Business Line : Chidambaram asks banks to upgrade technology

MUMBAI: Public sector banks must upgrade technology to provide services to people who have not been tapped so far, the Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram said on Monday.

"Our banking system is strong. It is one of the strongest banking systems in the world. Its NPAs are among the lowest in any banking system in the world,'' Mr Chidambaram said while inaugurating Union Bank of India's Technology Centre here. "We want to make it even better and offer support to public sector banks to innovate, to harness technology, go forward, go higher and push the frontiers of banking so we can achieve the goal of financial inclusion,'' he said.

He pointed out that public sector banks had driven the growth of the Indian banking industry despite constraints. Public sector banks have shown a number of initiatives and capacity to innovate. Human Resource (HR) and technology are two factors driving the growth of the banking sector, he said.

Mr Chidambaram asked banks to prepare 200-300 frequently asked questions and put them on their websites so that customers can access all the queries online. "This way we can drive financial inclusion faster than the traditional way of opening new branche s and rope in customers,'' he said, adding technology alone can advance financial inclusion.

The Minister said nearly one-half of the country's population did not have bank accounts, nor did it know about banking products, deposits or loan information. He asked banks to go to rural areas to bring them within the banking system.

Meanwhile, Union Bank of India Chairman M V Nair said UBI planned to have all its 2,400 branches under core banking solution network by March 2008 from the present 1,200 branches. - PTI

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