Paperless E-Transactions, A Viable Option

The recently held Banknet Conference 2008 focused on Paperless E-Transactions, which is increasingly being opted for, across banks in the country. Banknet India took this opportunity to launch the survey report as well. The findings of the survey showed that the use of plastic money is on a rise and that there was still a lot to be done on the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) front.

Banking is no longer confined to branches. Customers are being provided with multiple modes of accessing banking transactions, including internet banking, tele-banking and banking through the ATM. RBI is also encouraging transactions based on the electronic medium. According to a report released by the RBI, the total number of electronic transactions in 2006-07 has increased to 30% to 75% within a span of three years.

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A message that was common in all panel discussions was that there is awareness of the kinds of paperless e-transcations and the primary reason why the technology is not being used to the maximum is because there is lack of uniformity. The discussion brought out the issue that there should be standardisation in all technologies that are innovated in this sector, which will in turn help smaller cooperative and scheduled banks gain expertise without loosing out on much. A growing awareness about RTGS is an asset but there is a lag in the utilisation of it.

Bankers also collectively felt that these systems need to be uniform across banks to increase efficiency. With the growing popularity of internet banking, there should also be an upgrade in the internet bandwidth across industry, to sustain the growth. An important panel session discussed about the relevance of IT, government initiatives of making BFSI more innovative and up to the global standards. The panel consisted of eminent industry leaders like Pravin Vohra, Group CTO, ICICI Bank; Prof. Rajanish Dass, Computer & Information Systems Group, IIM Ahmedabad; NandKumar Saravade, IPS, Director-Cyber Security & Compliance, NASSCOM; Sanjeev Singh, Additional Director, Financial Intelligence Unit - India.

Another important discussion was on Cheque Truncation, which focused on maturing of the electronic payment systems. K.N.Krishnamurthy, General Manager, DPSS, Reserve Bank of India, asserted that the RBI is helping banks move from paper based banking. He also spoke about RTGS, NEFT, NDS, ECS and Cheque Truncation, becoming more widely used in day today’s banking. Umesh Jain, Chief Information Officer, Yes Bank spoke about the trends in payment systems and also about risks in the various clearing/payment systems including, settlement risk, systemic risk, operational risk and legal risk. D. Ray, General Manager- Payment Systems Group, State Bank of India implied that banks, both big and small, need not induct new technology but new products with the existing technology.