Moving swiftly to adopt technology and expand services
Telangana based co-operative bank is planning to increase its average digital transaction count to 0.2 million by end of 31st March 2024:
In recent times, Indian banking has seen major technological and financial innovations. For a small co-operative bank like Gayatri UCB, it is a big challenge to implement these innovative services. Vanamala Srinivas, CEO, informs: “Despite that, we accepted the challenge. We have launched mobile banking, IMPS, ATM services, POS, e-Com, RuPay platinum cards, RuPay EMV card services, tollfree banking, kiosk banking, RTGS/ NEFT, NACH and CTS clearing services, UPI, BC points, etc.”
The bank levies no charges on RTGS/ NEFT, no charges on mobile banking & IMPS services, no SMS charges, no charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance and no loan processing charges. Srinivas claims: “As such we are providing best technology enabled services on par with corporate and commercial banks in India.”
SPECIAL ATM FOR WOMEN
Gayatri Bank established dedicated ATM for women at Jagtial branch in 2013. Only women are allowed to transact with this ATM, which is placed separately. Srinivas vouches: “There is a high response for this ATM. Because of the positive response we added one more ATM dedicated to women at Jagtial branch in 2020. Women customers are feeling very happy with the establishment of special ATM, by which they can comfortably withdraw cash quickly. Daily 483 women are taking cash from this ATM on an average.”
ATM transactions count recorded in current financial year as of October 2021 is 2.56 million, against 3.62mn as of the last FY. Srinivas assures: “We are also planning to introduce special ATMs for women cardholders at all remaining branches in near future. We are also planning to launch contactless cards.”
IT VENDORS
Prior to 2007-08, banking operations of Gayatri Bank used to be done manually. The bank has rapidly adopted the latest technologies to provide the convenient and user-friendly services to its customers Srinivas elaborates: “Computerization started in the FY 2007-08 with the DOS based Veeramathi software. Then to give quick services, we moved to Windows based Sanreeg software. From 7th May 2012, we changed to Infrasoft software. At present, our bank is using BSG Software from 26th March 2018.”
CARD E-LOCK FOR SECURITY
Gayatri Bank has adopted technology advancements from time to time to provide convenient services to customers. It specially provides protective security feature to customer. Srinivas explains: “We have introduced the card e-lock feature to control the cyber-attacks of debit card. Customer can avail the lock / unlock ATM transaction by using transaction on / off option in mobile application or toll-free method.” When the account holder is registered for this service, his debit card will always be in disabled / inactive mode. When they want to do the card transaction for ATM withdrawal, POS and ecom transactions, customer must dial the toll-free number 07941055760 or mobile application which will enable / activate the card for ten minutes and automatically gets disabled. Srinivas further says: “With this e-lock facility customer transactions will be in their own hands. As it is easy to use / operate this feature, many of our customers are utilizing this ser vice. We have received lot of appreciation from society for introducing this service. We are not charging our customers for this service.”
UPI TRANSACTIONS
Gayatri UCB is always at the forefront to provide hassle free services to the customers round the clock. The bank has launched UPI (Unified Payment Interface) services on 25th October 2020. Srinivas updates: “Our UPI transactions count in the current FY is 7.29 million. The average digital transactions count is 0.1 mn per day and we are planning to increase its count to 0.15 mn per day by end of next FY and to 0.2 mn by end of 31st March 2024.”
AEPS, BC
Business Correspondents (BCs) are retail agents engaged by the bank for providing banking services at locations other than a bank branch/ATM. By this service, customer need not come to bank for his banking needs. Srinivas adds: “Gayatri Bank provides a new banking approach through BC / CSC (Business Correspondents / Common Service Center) point to bring the bank to the customer’s doorstep with financial inclusion mission.”
The bank started AePS (Aadhaar enabled Payment System) services on
7th April, 2021 to provide the easy and doorstep services to the senior citizens and rural people. Srinivas updates: “For this, we established nearly 288 BC points in villages and other areas around all our branches. We are planning to increase our BC point count from 288 to 400. We have provided desktop and mobile channel of BC application and have been giving training to the BC agents on regular basis to facilitate quick and prompt services to the customers. We have established BCs in all villages to provide banking services. We are going to introduce account opening services at BC points through eKYC. The testing of eKYC is in final stage now. Very shortly we are going to start this eKYC process.”
BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION
Customers are availing the banking transactions including cash withdrawal, cash deposit, micro atm transactions, IMPS and fund transfer at their nearest place only. Srinivas adds: “To avoid the fraudulent transactions, we introduced biometric and iris authentication method at BC points. AePS transaction count has reached 90,080 till date.”
TECH ENABLED SERVICES
For giving convenient and user-friendly services to its customers, Gayatri Bank is adopting newer technology enabled services. It has introduced centralized payments systems at head office with the expert team. Srinivas points out: “The various digital systems to increase customer base and achieve growth in business are provided by the bank. We established cash-full ATM services from 17th January 2014 and have reached to 55 such onsite ATMs at present.”
The bank introduced POS/ecom ser vices in January 2017; obtained membership in NFS and launched RuPay EMV debit card and platinum card services; obtained sub-membership in CTS clearing from 2010 onwards and established CTS clearing set up at all branches for clearing of cheques faster and safer. The bank obtained submembership in RTGS, NEFT system and launched host to host RTGS/NEFT services; obtained mobile banking license from RBI and has been providing services from 6th February 2016.
The bank started tollfree banking to provide the missed call services to the customers for instant banking. It got membership in NACH and have been providing NACH credit and debit facilities to customers.
Srinivas informs: “To secure operations from cyber-attacks, the bank has been monitoring all operations by adopting the antivirus and Velox softwares. We are providing Aadhaar based subsidy accounts by doorstep banking. IMPS transactions count recorded in current financial year as of October 2021 is 0.46 mn, whereas that count was 0.71 mn at the end of the last financial year. 711,180 mobile banking transactions have taken place as of October, 2021. We are trying to motivate the customer to move to the eco-friendly digital transactions.”