Amidst the speed of digitisation, there is a need to maintain the credibility of institutions, said Sunil Mehta, CEO of the Indian Banks’ Association.

“Banking is a business of trust where credibility needs to be maintained. Bankers have to maintain the credibility of the institution and the privacy of customer data. Users are needed to be given confidence on cybersecurity, that their data will be kept private and there will be no thefts,” said Mehta at a panel discussion on ‘Thriving in the world of digital’ at ETBFSI Converge Summit 2022.

He said banks have done a great job and have come a long way in terms of digitalisation. “Now is the time for digitisation of lending space. Some banks have taken a lead and started working on this while some have already created an additional platform where customers can opt for personal loans,”

Stating that the three principles for digital lending were database, underwriting and documentation, he said apart from the banks’ own transition data, the data for underwriting was also available through GST and account aggregator framework.

With 26 state governments having provided e-stamping facilities, there is end-to-end digitsation in the loan process, he said.

Business fundamentals intact

Rajeev Yadav, MD & CEO, Fincare Small Finance Bank, said working in digital is easy but maintaining the flow is difficult. Stating that every customer uses digital differently, he said, “Everybody offers mobile banking, the kind of consistent, seamless experience they provide will be the differentiator. He said assisted experience given to a customer using digital is far superior to a Do-it-yourself (DIY) model. Good risk principle and customer satisfaction are deciding factors of any digital product, he added.

J Venkatramu, MD & CEO, India Post Payments Bank, said with the first round of financial inclusion, a problem that India was facing for long has been solved because of digital. He said the fundamentals of business models will not change due to digital.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO – Enterprise Business, Airtel Business, said US banks looked like they were 20 years ahead of India in the 90s. Now we’ve grown to a level where we are ’20 years ahead’. He said five years down, 5G speeds will allow banks to beam themselves.