Raghuram Rajan for more use of IT by banks

Hyderabad: The use of information technology in the Indian banking system is still quite low and the banks should use new technologies to bring down costs, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said here on Friday.

Speaking at an award function organised by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technologies, Rajan said the process of setting up an IT subsidiary of RBI is currently underway.

"IT and IT usage has not penetrated into the banks as fully and as properly as we would like. The entire banks are not fully integrated in terms of IT usage such that on a daily basis it can spin out what the details of the loans are, what the performance is. It still takes time to put the stage together," Rajan said.

Speaking about the challenges before the banking system, the Governor advised banks to make use of the information available about the customers for serving them in terms of services and designing new products.

"There is tremendous amount of information about the customer that is made available through the system ranging from their social media habits and also various kinds of products being used by them. All of this can be use to formulate better in terms of what the customer is likely to use or want and essentially to serve the consumer need," Rajan said.

He said banks that are still using traditional systems and offering traditional products would face huge challenges in future from the modern banks.

On the cyber security and fraud prevention issues, Rajan said for small bank transactions if banks or credit card providers are willing to take the risk, then perhaps RBI may allow small value payments, which are based on direct usage of cards, without a second level of protection.

He also hoped that the Supreme Court will take a positive view on the wider usage of Aadhaar card. "The cost structure in the banking system despite use of all the information technology is still significantly high. Why are they not coming down faster? We should use more and more technology to bring down the cost faster," he said. Rajan later gave away Banking Technology Awards announced by the IDRBT for the usage of technology in banking.