While cloud computing and mobile computing are seen as major drivers in various areas of business, such as traditional banking, wealth management could also become a major area of opportunity for banks because of the rising affluence of Indians.

Mr Haragopal Mangipudi, Global Head - Finacle, Infosys Technologies, told Business Line , “India is on a wave and needs a scalable wealth management solution.” Providing an anecdotal example, he said, “Seven years ago, my driver didn't have a bank account; now, he not only has an account, he has also started using it for derivatives.” Finacle is a software product offering for banks from the tech major, which has traditionally played in the software services arena.

He said that many banks will have to offer wealth management solutions to their customers as they (the latter) get richer. In addition to wealth management, cloud computing and mobile banking are also going to be major drivers, said Mr Haragopal. “We have a solution called Finacle Lite on the cloud and mobile banking that can work off several handsets, from basic phones to smart phones.”Discussing Finacle's performance, he said that it has grown over 42 per cent, from $208 million in FY10 to $295.6 million in FY12. “We had 41 wins this year as compared to 31 last year,” he said.

Talking about trends in tech-enabled usage of banking, he said that location-specific banking will be important for banks in the future. “For example, a bank based out of Jayanagar in Bangalore could offer some special services to gain greater market share in that locality.”

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