TSCAB onboards 2 million customers in 3 years
Installs 2000 digital channel touchpoints across Telangana in a span of 2 years:
During the covid pandemic, Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank has been continuously striving to support the entire rural cooperative institutions in Telangana by providing required guidance and additional liquidity support so that these institutions could extend finance to the needy rural farmers. The bank is leveraging its technological abilities to offer the benefits of digital financial inclusion to rural India. The bank’s vision and commitment for financial inclusion of the people who are in the distance focus of banking and financial sector, says Dr Nethi Muralidhar, MD of the bank, are reflected in the multiple, large scale and the first in the country innovative programs.
COOP ATM NETWORK
In the last 3 years, the bank has introduced new payment channels such as mobile banking, IMPS, AEPS, ATMs, micro ATMs and POS terminals. “We have installed 210 ATMs, 1150 micro-ATMs, 12 mobile ATMs and 1500 m-POS terminals, thereby creating approximately 2000 digital payment transaction channel touchpoints across interior rural areas of Telangana, where no other bank has a branch or an ATM. This initiative has made the bank as a reference example defining service expansion horizon of cooperative banks and being academically studied by other SCBs,” says Muralidhar.
PACS COMPUTERIZATION
The central government has nominated Muralidhar as a member of 2 important committees – the National Implementation and Monitoring Committee and National Level Technology Committee - to oversee the computerization of primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) all over the country. Muralidhar says the project of computerization of PACS all over the country has a budgetary allocation of `19 billion. This project is being implemented through NABARD and is proposed to be completed in 3 years, he adds.
The bank has initiated computerization of PACS in Telangana, which is first of its kind in the country. Says Muralidhar: “After thorough validation, the government of
Telangana has selected Intellect Informatics as the application service provider for the PACS computerization project. With a record timeline of completion of this project, bringing uniformity and transparency in a highly unorganized structure, this initiative has gained attention of many reputed national agencies and institutions such as Niti Aayog, NABARD, NAFSCOB, etc. Along with computerization, data integration with refinancing banks (DCCBs & SCB) is also achieved which is a significant achievement no other state in the country could successfully complete till date.”
He says micro ATMs and mobile ATMs are deployed in rural areas and display panels are attached to mobile demo ATMs to create awareness among and encourage the rural population to be a part of digital revolution. Besides, doorstep services are extended for onboarding new customers, creating new accounts and for ATM withdrawals. Besides, people can also make deposits and avail AEPS services using micro-ATMs. The bank also offers continuous training and capacity building measures to the staff of SCB, DCCBs and PACSs in technology and business perspectives using new digital channels.
MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS
The bank has been able to onboard 2 million customers onto digital platforms in just 3 years. Says Muralidhar: “We have made it possible for 3 million PACS customers in Telangana to utilize the benefits of the mainstream banking and digital transaction channel facilities. Approximately 2000 digital channel touchpoints have been created across the state in 2 years. We have also issued 4 million debit and EMV cards. We are the first state cooperative bank in the country to undertake full scale computerization of all PACS, integrating them to the 3-tier structure.”
TECH EXCELLENCE CENTRE
The bank has set up TSCAB Technology Excellence Centre to manage tasks like implementing core banking applications, setting up ATMs, mobile ATMS and microATMS, digital channels, payment systems, transaction processing, IS audits, data center, disaster recovery center, communication networks, network security operations, digital channels and other technology and security related operations. It is the sponsor bank for CTS for all DCCBs and a few UCBs in the state. It has also introduced green pin facility for all the RuPay cards issued by it and the DCCBs. All the DCCBs and their branches have been provided with independent email services with their own domains.
Muralidhar says the bank has initiated the process to centralize all NPCI NFS operations under its sponsorship. The bank’s state of art Cybersecurity Operations Centre (C-SOC) is providing services since October 2019 and besides its requirements, it is also catering to the needs of 9 DCCBs. The C-SOC has the capability to meet the requirements of at least 200 cooperative institutions.
DIGITAL SURGE: RURAL CLICKS
Muralidhar says the trends and analysis suggest that the rural population has significantly contributed to a surge of new customers, deposits and digital transactions. The bank’s initiative has been extremely successful for a short period of time and doing fairly good since then. He feels banks need to form timely and necessary strategy to continue the momentum of financial inclusion so that the population distant from banking and financial services is brought under banking.