Banking Sector in a New "Avatar"
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, Feb 26, 2008

"The use of IT in all spheres of finance and banking sectors is a deep realty", said the Chief Guest, R. B. Barman, executive director of Reserve Bank of India, at CII's 3rd Banking Tech Summit, 2008 titled "Sustaining Growth and Managing Risk Through Technology" in Mumbai.

He further remarked that the nexus between financial and rural sector is of paramount importance and that IT is a strategic medium to reach the masses.

Besides, in order to cater to the world market and move in tandem with the continued pressure it poses, a serious challenge comes in the form of institutional reforms with financial intrusion. While emphasizing on the changing role of the technology, Barman added that this sector has enabled the banking sector to go beyond its traditional role.

The sector is now playing an increasingly important role in its key areas of operation as securitization, risks preference, and liquidity among others to which IT helps in a big way.

Deepak Ghaisas, chairman of CII's Banking Tech Summit 2008 and vice chairman & director of i-flex solutions, highlighted the key gaps besotting our banking industry presently, the biggest being the technological gap.

Today market demand is created by private banks, who are the drivers of the banking industry, but unfortunately even they're also partially technology driven in comparison with their western counterparts, said Ghaisas.

Hence, we need to see a future that is technology driven not only for the number of transactions, but also to save time. Furthermore, the banks should now be viewed in a new light, and as a gateway beyond the transaction of money.

The whole objective of this year's summit was not just to talk of banking and view technology only as an enabler, but to go beyond a step and bank on technology and hence the theme, "Sustaining Growth and Managing Risk through Technology". With a broad based theme as this it was not difficult for this year's edition of the Banking Tech Summit to witness a participation of over 209 delegates in all.


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