Telangana SCB
IT companies have redesigned their applications and reallocated their spaces to suit the needs of the bank, which are mostly driven by the customers’ requirements:
Requirements by banks for IT services have changed during the pandemic as compared to earlier times. The pandemic has transformed the entire portfolio of the banking sector and the approach now appears to be that banks have to tread toward their customer base. For instance, previously, a customer had to visit a branch for general banking operations. That is not the case now.
‘Nethi Muralidhar, MD, Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank, points out that thanks to developments in technology, the same customer can make use of different digital banking channels to perform the same general banking operations. “Our major digital services include ATMs, mobile banking, cash deposit/recycler machines, RTGS/ NEFT, IMPS transfers, UPI, and utility bill payment systems. Recent times have seen a humongous surge in the utilization of IT services,” he says.
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
In order to meet the needs of the hour, IT companies have upgraded their repository to make use of the new opportunities created by the pandemic. Says Muralidhar: “The response from IT companies has been overwhelming as there is no alternative to upgrade one’s self in the industry. These companies have redesigned their applications and reallocated their spaces to suit the needs of the banks, which are mostly driven by the customers’ requirements.”
NEED BASED PARTNERS
The decision to change the IT service partners or to retain them is mostly based on the nature of the needs. Murlidhar explains that for those services which are found satisfactory, the existing partners are retained and for newer requirements, new partners are engaged.
The number of outsourced IT service personnel depends on the business of the organization. Muralidhar says in his bank this number has remained constant, which is an indication that the bank is self-sufficient in dealing with the situations.
OUTSOURCED OPERATIONS
A number of banks are known to have outsourced their IT services during the pandemic. Based on the central theme of reducing the need for customers’ physical presence in the bank, the Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank has converted various operations into digital modes. Citing an example, Muralidhar says cash deposit does not need a customer’s presence during the business timings of the bank. Customers have the choice of depositing cash via cash recycler machine as per their convenience. Further, several initiatives such as the e-office platform, e-inspection, TAB banking and others are in various stages of implementation in the bank.
UPI SUPPLEMENTS CTS
Muralidhar says during the pandemic, certain IT services are likely to increase, and some decrease. “For example,” says he, “IT services relating to the e-channels are on a continuous surge, which in turn has necessitated the bank boosting its architectural portfolio. This extensive surge has also resulted in the fall of the need for a customer to visit a branch in person. Hence, the IT services related to CTS modules have been on the vane as IMPS/UPI has supplemented most of the CTS services.”
BUSINESS MULTIPLIED
It is interesting to know how IT services have contributed to increasing business and customer base as well as customer satisfaction in 2020-21. Says Muralidhar: “Due to the unprecedented surge in the use of digital channels, transactions in our bank have multiplied 4-fold, which has resulted in increase of service charges collection portfolio. Further, the loan portfolios have witnessed a drastic increase resulting in the business expansion of the bank. The effective handling of such services has improved customer satisfaction and the hassle-free services have led in increase in customer base. The seamless IT services, which work round the clock, had a linear effect on the scope of the business of the bank and thereby resulted in rendering immaculate service to a large customer base.”
CYBER SECURITY PRACTICES
The cyber security framework is the most
crucial aspect in developing a security shield to the operations and databases of a bank. The C-SOC (Cyber Security Operations Centre) framework of the bank has been designed in line with the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India. Muralidhar explains: “The framework encapsulates various security elements and features for all the equipment and for all the business operations within our organization. There are various levels in the security architecture that integrate with the bank’s architecture that is in place. The central theme is to provide a fool-proof security layer to the bank to make it capable enough to thwart the threats encountered in the daily operations.”
C-SOC TOOLS
The bank conceived its C-SOC set-up in 2018-19 and it became operational in 2020. Implementation of different C-SOC tools has been major aspect in the operationalization of the framework. “Our C-SOC tools include Spam Gateway Filtration, Antivirus, Network Monitoring Tool, Bandwidth Management, Web Helpdesk, etc. Checks are in place in the email security gateway in such a way that each email is scrutinized before entering the organization’s domain, thereby filtering spams and unwanted content. Content in malicious email domains is identified and blocked thereby enabling a fool-proof mailing system. All the systems and applications are covered by the antivirus tool which ensures threat-free usage and a check on the possible infiltrations with periodic updates,” says Muralidhar.
A network monitoring tool helps t o assess the performance of the systems, servers and the network in the organization. All the criticalities can be assessed and corrective measures taken at the outset resulting in hassle-free services. The internet’s bandwidth can be assessed thereby resulting in the related fixes as per the need of the application and further managing the bandwidth to various applications depending on the usage. Triggering different and specific alerts to the web helpdesk makes life easy for the administrators to fix the issues in no-time rather than examining the whole set-up and identifying the threat, which is quite cumbersome in the banking-related architecture.
There are other tools like Security Incident Event Manager, Server Management Tool and Nessus Tool. Muralidhar explains: “The system logs and different related aspects can be monitored, which helps in assessing the possible threats within the organization. The integrated lights out tool helps in identification of different bugs even without the internet connectivity. This tool can be effective to deal in disasterspecific conditions. Nessus tool is effective in identifying the vulnerability of the network devices in the organization.”
Muralidhar claims t he bank’s established technology framework is considered as one of the biggest achievements in the cooperative banking sector and various authorities have given accolades for doing so. “Apart from these tools, we are exploring options to create other effective security mechanisms in the bank on a periodic basis so that practically all the security loopholes are plugged,” he says.