Banking on IT to dovetail with business

S Sekar, Assistant General Manager, IT department, Karur Vysya Bank shares with Pratima Harigunani of  CyberMedia News the direction IT is taking into the strategic league as it walks shoulder to shoulder with business and also tiptoes into the unbanked frontiers of the vast Indian hinterlands

What's the role and sufficiency-status of IT in helping the bank cover the unbanked India?

Education is a primary problem. People should be given enough confidence to handle the technology touch points. Innovation is needed to do that. We still have a long way to go. Technology is still urban-centric. We need to cover much for the suburban masses.

Any international banks you think are good benchmarks here?

Barclays is a good example given their impressive card-based systems.

What's the action at your bank per se on this front?

We are working on financial enclosure as a major focus. We are trying to put in place a smart card model where small micro finance parties need not pay to branches. Instead, we engage business correspondents at local areas with smart card solutions. The collection happens at local level only which can later be uploaded on the branch.

It's in pilot stage now but there is vast potential given the spread we traditionally have in semi-urban and rural segments. We focus on providing technology at an affordable price and want to take it to masses. Sometimes, here we might have to compromise on profits but reach will pay in the long run.

How strategic has really the role of IT has become vis-à-vis business?

It is actually happening, particularly in banking services where technology has to give direct returns to business. So we sit along with business departments rather than working apart.

Any challenges you see in particular?

The days of technology in banks are going to be more challenging. Though everyone is going CBS (Core Banking Solution), the real challenge is the data. As banks, public or private have a long distance of many years. Making quality data available is a challenge.