‘Digital-attacker banks’. PSBs to transform into ‘digital-attacker banks’ under EASE 4.0 reforms agenda

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday unveiled a roadmap to transform all public sector banks (PSBs) into “digital-attacker banks”, working hand-in-hand with key constituents of the financial services ecosystem to offer industry-best customer experience.

The fourth edition of the EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) reforms agenda for PSBs has been unveiled in the backdrop of the amalgamation of 13 PSBs into 5 PSBs being successfully completed over the last two years.

EASE 4.0 commits PSBs to tech-enabled, simplified and collaborative banking, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) said in a statement, adding that it aims to further the agenda of customer-centric digital transformation and deeply embed digital and data into PSBs’ ways of working..

24x7 banking services

In the last two years, PSBs have undergone mega consolidation. It started with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank being amalgamated with Bank of Baroda (with effect from April 1, 2019).

This amalgamation was followed by the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India with Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India; and Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank with effect from April 1, 2020.

According to the IBA statement, under EASE 4.0, the theme of new age 24x7 banking with resilient technology has been introduced to ensure uninterrupted availability of banking services by ensuring 24x7 availability of select banking channels, improving the reliability of technology platforms, and aligning internal processes in the PSBs to deliver such services.

As per the agenda, collaborative banking for synergistic outcomes aims to maximise synergies through collaboration between PSBs and with broader financial services ecosystem such as non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) for the coordinated handling of co-originated loans.

In addition to the new themes, several other new reforms will be added to existing themes such as increased use of digital and data for agriculture financing through partnerships with third parties for alternate data exchange, driving impetus on digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas, at-scale adoption of doorstep banking services for PSB customers.

EASE 3.0

Smart Lending was a key theme introduced under EASE 3.0 (launched in FY21) to simplify access to credit through initiatives such as ‘Dial-a-loan’ for origination of loans through digital channels available 24x7.

Further, ‘Credit@click’ was introduced for end-to-end digital retail and MSME loans with significantly reduced turnaround time, pro-active reach-out to existing bank customers through analytics-based and customer-need driven credit offers, use of cash-flow data based lending, etc.

The IBA statement said PSBs now offer 24x7 availability of select retail and MSME credit products through five digital channels - SMS, missed call, call centre, bank website, and mobile banking application.

“These channels are integrated end-to-end to ensure action on credit requests within committed turnaround time.

“PSBs are also offering the facility to customers to request product advice, loan application filling, and necessary documents collection at their doorstep,” the Association added.

Meanwhile, IBA said State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), and Union Bank of India (UBI) have won the awards for best performing banks for PSB Reforms EASE 3.0 based on the EASE index. Indian Bank won the award for the best improvement from the baseline performance.

SBI, BoB, UBI, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank won the top awards in different themes of the PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0.

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