Digital Transformation is a journey for Banks

Frontiers in Cooperative Banking Awards (FCBA) is a flagship event organized by Banking Frontiers where achievements and contributions of cooperative banks in the country are recognized and rewarded. Alongside the event is the National Cooperative Banking Summit (NCBS), where experts in the cooperative banking sector review and discuss the state of cooperative banking in the country. FCBA 2019 and NCBS 2019 were held in Goa and leading cooperative bankers participated in the deliberations on topics like business, strategy, technology, risk, customer experience, HR, etc. Here are the highlights of the discussions:

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There can be no progress without digital transformation in banking and digital transformation is a journey, which has not begun today but has been happening in the last 2-3 decades, said Vishwavir Saran Das, former ED, Reserve Bank of India.

Participating in a panel discussion on Leaders of Tomorrow for Digital Transformation at the Banking Frontiers-organized FCBA 2019 and NCBS 2019, he recalled that the RBI had set up a ‘high-technology cell’ in 1981 to create a mechanism for computerization of the banking industry, and all the transformation in the industry taken place because it had a leadership force behind it. The right kind of leadership drives the transformation, he added.

Das said: “The crucial thing about a leader is that he has the passion to do things, passion to challenge status quo. A leader must support other leaders and he also needs to support his subordinates.”

He said the cooperative banking sector in India is facing huge challenges - the sector has 1541 banks of which 54 are scheduled banks and majority of the banks are small and single unit banks. The spread of the sector across the country is uneven as the concentration of urban cooperative banks is in 5-6 states. According to him, the urban cooperative banks must perform as per their potential, and they should expand to other states.