Improve facilities to utilise IT, says Ananthakrishna

BSNL had helped Karnataka Bank to introduce core banking

There is urgent need for the government to improve the infrastructure facilities with emphasis on electricity in rural areas for the effective utilisation of the Information Technology by the banking sector, said Karnataka Bank Chairman Ananthakrishna.

He said that with the IT benefiting the banks as well as the customers to a great extent, it would be possible to extend the online banking and other IT based banking facilities to the rural areas, provided the government supports banks with the basic infrastructure facilities.

He was delivering the presidential address at the valedictory programme of the three-day national conference on the Information technology and its implications on the Banking Sector: Challenges and prospects, organised by the Department of Post Graduate Studies in Commerce at the University College on Thursday.

Narrating one of the incidents of how a public sector company helped the bank to implement the programme, he recalled how Karnataka Bank sought the help of BSNL in implementing Core Banking solution way back in 1999.

“When I initiated Core Banking solution facility, the functioning of BSNL telephone connection was not up to the mark.

Yet I banked on the government company, and convinced an official to improve the facility by rectifying the cable and interruption problems at the earliest keeping in mind the bank’s work.

Within no time, the BSNL telephone functioning improved drastically and that is how the core banking facility turned out to be a huge success,” he said.

He spoke about the role of IT in the financial literacy programme. The Reserve Bank of India has aimed at improving financial literacy in the nation, which could be fulfilled by blending the banking sector with the IT. The financial inclusion too would be possible with the help of IT.

He said that 40 per cent of Indian population which is eligible to own bank accounts do not hold accounts now. The banking sector in India intends to make every eligible citizen of India to hold a bank account by 2020. The objective could be reached with the support of IT, opined Ananthakrishna.

Chief guest of the function Deputy Commissioner Dr N S Channappa Gowda said that IT in banking should reach every common man and the significance of IT in banking is proved only when a common man says he has been greatly benefited by online banking services.