CAIRO: A large segment of people in India are left underserved by quality banking, as it is limited to large cities, according to H Srikrishnan, executive director of Yes Bank.

Speaking at the recently concluded CIOL C Change here, he said: “There are a few positive trends such as strong sustained growth of 7-8% in GDP, large proportion of increasingly affluent and young population - driving force for domestic consumption and number of domestic industries achieving global competitiveness. However, access to quality banking products is significantly lower in India and is limited to large cities, SMEs do not have sufficient access to credit, opportunity for technology driven, quality service oriented banks to garner significant market share.”

Srikrishna was participating in a panel discussion on Crossing the Digital Divide: Challenges Confronting a CEO, a discussion on the challenges confronted when it comes to thinking and integrating technology in the business strategizing process.

He also said that technology has become an integral part of business strategy with the shift in customer expectations. “Rapid Change in Customer Demographics resulting in increased expectation of sophistication (Youth, Nouveau riche), bank's in pursuit of delivering “WOW” experience, Superior Customer Service leads to higher share-of-wallet,” he said.

This has called for more investments made for customer benefits. “Substantial Investments being made for resultant consumer benefits, CIO's have moved from Corner Rooms to Board Rooms,” he adds.

Srikrishna also pointed at the need for outsourcing. Bank intermediation in India is much lower compared to the region and concentration of Banks remains limited to few sections of economy.

“To bridge the gap, outsourcing is the best possible method,” he said, adding, “With outsourcing the IT requirement, Banks can focus attention and efforts on those activities that will give a distinctive advantage, take advantage of efficiencies of scale, procurement leverage and capital appetite to improve price performance, manage the risks by employing specialist technical skills, improve career opportunities, people management, better manage IT investment by moving to variable operating expense-based structure, “ he said.