Two bankers - Divesh Dinkar, GM IT at Bank of Maharashtra and Rajnish Khare, Chief Digital Officer at Union Bank of India, along with Harshal Dunakhe, CEO - Business Automation at Kores (India) Ltd, share insightful perspectives on transforming branch banking services for impact and efficiency. The views expressed by the bankers are their personal views and not necessarily that of their respective banks.
Looking at the news headlines these days, one finds many banks expanding their branch network. One bank did a massive advertising campaign announcing their milestone of 5000 branches. Is it that in the days of digital banking, branch banking is still a gold mine?
The first question in the context of branch banking, particularly for PSU banks, is which are the customer segments that visit the branches to fulfil their banking needs. The answer is retail, micro and SMEs. Typically, traders, partners and proprietors, and to some extent private limited companies, are the branch customers. Further, senior citizens form an important customer group for branches.
Financial products related to these segments must be specially packaged for these customers, avers Harshal Dunakhe, CEO –Business Automation at Kores (India) Ltd. From a product point of view, loan products form a large part of the transactions, from personal to business loans, every loan product sold has some embedded previous relationship with the customer, he adds.
Two important aspects – relationship with the bank, and trust in the bank’s brand, forms the foundation of these customer segments to keep coming to the PSU bank branches.
Rajnish Khare recommends a consistent experience across channels, which allow customers to start applications online and complete them at branches
Even today PSU banks follow a phygital strategy and do not go totally digital. The important question arises as to how they are creating a physical blend to facilitate seamless transactions with speed while maintaining the physical touch at the branch.
Rajnish Khare, Chief Digital Officer at Union Bank of India says that by combining digital tools, upgraded physical branches and integrated experiences, PSU banks are facilitating seamless transactions at speed while maintaining a role for customized