Mumbai, Sep 16 (FN Representative) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday exhorted banks to plan for the next 25 years, embracing digital, modern technologies and seamless systems which talk to each other. ”Banks will have to make strategies for the next 25 years to meet the aspirations of the young population as there will be 60 per cent of youth by 2030. Banks should be more accessible to women and youth. They should also be digital savvy and IBA (Indian Banking Association) should ensure that all systems in all the banks talk to one another for the benefit of the customers.
The banks should also ensure that they are protected from possible cyber attacks,” she said while addressing the 75th Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks’ Association. ”You need to make your portfolios so that they are attractive to the young as well and make yourselves accessible to them. Are you communicating to the youth, to women, are you offering products to them?,” she asked. Stating that technologies bring in benefits such as detecting fraud, tracking of wrong money, detecting unusual transactions, she advised banks to leverage artificial intelligence on priority basis. Sitharaman assured that no fraudulent account will be left without being taken to the court. ”Fraudsters have no place in the country. Banks will not suffer for money taken away by fraudsters. This is the kind of support with which we want to work with banks. We shall get the money back. Banks are the custodian of that money. They will not suffer due to money taken away by the fraudsters. I can say this with confidence because during the last few years we have done it,” she said.
The minister asked the banks to ensure that their staff, specially at the branch level, speak the language of the region where they are posted. ”Show inclusivity in your staff, in the way you speak to your customers. When you have staff who do not speak the regional language and who demand citizens to speak in a particular language, you have a problem. Please review the people getting posted at branches, people who cannot speak local language should not be assigned to roles dealing with customers. You must have a lot more sensible ways of recruiting people,” she said. Stating that some areas in the country were adequately covered, the finance minister asked the banks to have more business correspondents, especially women. She said the North East region requires special treatment and asked the banks to ensure financial inclusion for that area as well. She asked all banks to work on improving insurance coverage. ”Public and private sector banks should look at increasing coverage of insurance under government schemes. There is a need to reach maximum saturation for this,” she said. Pointing out the importance of upgradation of Regional Rural Banks (RRB), Sitharanam said,”Some attention needs to be given to regional rural banks. They need support for digitisation and upgradation in terms of systems they have. they need assistance in terms of getting all accounts into digital platform.”