Climbing digital steps with EASE
PSB customers, active on mobile and internet banking channels, has increased y/y by 420 mn to 760 mn in quarter ended March 2021:
Credit@Click, a flagship initiative under `Enhanced Access and Service Excellence’ (EASE) 3.0 has proved to be very successful. Top 7 public sector banks (PSBs) have set up mechanisms. `55 billion of fresh loans for unsecured personal loans (UPL) and `1.24 bn of fresh loans for small credit were disbursed end-to-end digitally in quarter ended March 2021. This works out to 2X growth in unsecured personal loans and 10X growth in small credit loans compared to quarter ended March 2020. Nearly 0.44 million customers have benefitted through such instantaneous and simplified credit access, according to the annual report `PSB Reforms Agenda EASE 3.0 for 2020-21’.
LEADS GENERATED 24X7
In FY21, PSBs have collectively disbursed `408 of fresh personal, home and vehicle loans through leads sourced from such digital channels.
PSBs have also extensively used external partnerships and dedicated marketing salesforce network for the sourcing of retail segment and MSME segment loans. Sourcing from such channels has seen 0.91 mn loans in FY21.
ANALYTICS, IT INFRA
The top 7 PSBs have built analytics capabilities through the set up of dedicated analytics teams and IT infrastructure to proactively offer loans to its existing customers. In FY21, `497.77 bn of fresh retail loan disbursements were made by the top 7 PSBs based on these credit offers.
CHANNELS & LANGUAGES
The base of PSB customers which are active on mobile and internet banking channels has increased from 340 mn in quarter ended March 2020 to 760 mn in quarter ended March 2021. Nearly 72% of financial transactions happening at PSBs in now happening through digital channels.
PSBs are now offering services across call centres, internet banking, and mobile banking in 14 regional languages for the ease of customers. 96% of PSB branches now have at least one officer fluent in conversing in local languages in Q4FY21.
For continual improvement in coverage under financial inclusion initiatives, there was a 13% growth in transactions provided by Bank Mitras, Bank Correspondents in rural areas and 50% growth in enrolments in micro personal accident insurance in Q4FY21 compared to Q4FY20.
RECOVERY & EWS
PSBs have adopted digital platforms such as online OTS, eBKray, e-DRT for expedited recovery. Nearly `40.68 bn value of assets recovered via e-listing on eBKray platform in FY21. `33 trillion loan book has been covered under EWS at the end of March 2021. Significant progress is seen across 6 themes of the reforms agenda, with the highest improvement seen in the themes of `smart lending’ and `institutionalising prudent banking’.
EASE 4.0: EMBED DIGITAL, DATA
The next edition of EASE reforms i.e. EASE 4.0 aims to further the agenda of customer-centric digital transformation and deeply embed digital and data into PSBs’ ways of working.
Under EASE 4.0, PSBs will offer new age 24x7 banking with resilient technology.
PSBs will offer digital and dataenabled agri financing through measures such as agri loan initiation via digital channels such as SMS, missed call, call centre, internet and mobile banking. They will leverage partnerships with third parties and agritechs for alternate data exchange, end-to-end digitization.
PSBs will strive for improved access to doorstep banking services by promoting awareness and encouraging usage of such services and time-bound actions for service delivery. They will be promoting digital payments in semi-urban and rural areas through adoption of NFC, Bharat QR-based payment solutions, etc. to increase the use of digital modes of payment.
From different modes of staffing to remote working, 80,000+ bank branches were operational during covid19. Additionally, there has been around two times increase in Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) transactions through micro-ATMs, and enhanced doorstep banking support by 75,000+ Bank Mitras. To further support the customers in these times, the banks have drastically increased the number of services being offered at the call centres to 23 regional languages.