BANKING METAMORPHOSIS

It was that last classroom credit training program, just prior to this COVID-19 pandemic crisis, I was taking a class for Branch Heads of Semi-urban and rural branches.

- Deepak N S

As usual, I started my class with an exclamation by asking the question what was banking. I got various answers including the one I was expecting i.e. accepting deposits for the purpose of lending. Meanwhile, I heard a mild whispering from one of the participants, Sir, we are doing everything other than what you defined.

It made everyone in class laugh including me. It really opened up the class which made my job easy. I continued class asking him with a smile what all you did then, so everyone opened up, lot of things came out such as cross-selling, technological issues, multiple software handling issues, lead generation, downward market trend, banking apps, recovery, disruptions from the payment banks, competition from private & NBFCs, low-cost QR (quick response) technologies, need of AI (artificial intelligence)and so on and so forth. Before the class get hi-jacked I smartly made an exit to the discussion saying thanks for such responses.

Well, somewhere consciously I agreed in mind that of course the banking was no more the same traditional accepting deposit for lending but there was a complete metamorphosis in the banking sector. Let us see how the banks look like with this facelift.

1. What banking will look like in the coming decade?

If we just look back a few years ago, the business in banking meant the sum total of advances and deposit because the higher your total business higher would be the profit due to the substantial spread of interest. But, as of now, it is all about the bottom-line of what matters in the banking business irrespective of the size of the business. If I just put the same in my lighter sense it is all about being slim and productive rather than being hefty and docile.