Banks should keep pace with trends for success: Ex- CJI

Pointing at the key trends in banking sector in the digital era, former chief justice of India Justice M N Venkatachalaiah gave a call to the banks to keep pace with the trends which play a great role in determining the success of banking.

He was delivering Founders’ Day lecture of Karnataka Bank at the Bank auditorium on Monday. Refering to a study by IBM on the banking sector, he said according to the study a new brand of tech savvy users of financial services, market consolidation of bigger brands, emergence of community banks, institutions providing specific services, emergence of new skilled work force, high transparency and sharply focused technologies are some of the key trends that determine the success of banking.

With the concept of ‘go mobile or die’ gaining momentum, the banks should adopt to the changes and majority of them have already updated to the new requirements. He quoted a report in a newspapers which termed Mumbai as the leading city in banking frauds. In the financial year 2010-11, banks in Mumbai reported 787 fraud cases involving Rs 1049 crore, followed by Delhi with Rs 355 crore. At this juncture, the bankers should ensure that the power they possess should be used for good. The bankers must evolve themselves into economic, technological and social philosophers to be able to foresee and foretell the future, the former chief justice said.

Taking a note of the survey, according to which India has 310 million saving bank accounts, he said with the possibility of multiple accounts, the number of SB accounts could be estimated at 200 million. It implies that 83 per cent of the population has no access to banks. As a result, there is tremendous scope for growth.

“There is an estimated 675 million active mobile connections. By 2020 mortgages are estimated to cross Rs 40,000 billion. Wealth management will be a big business. Mobile banking will witness explosive growth and change the entire banking scenario. So does the investment banking and underwriting, infrastructure funding. There will be tremendous pressure on staff-talent and there will be a great demand on outsourcing of services,” Justice Venkatachalaiah forecasted.

Karnataka Bank Chairman Ananathakrishna presided over the programme.
Managing Director Jayaram Bhat was present.

The lecture was followed by a violin recital by Vidwan Ganesh and Kumaresh brothers from Chennai.