Competition's Healthy: India’s banking sector

Competition's Healthy: India’s banking sector is inefficient and customers

pay the cost, making reforms imperative (TOI 16 Oct 2013)

Excerpts & Comments:

-- RBI governor recently promised banking reforms, which includes more operational freedom for foreign banks if they adhere to some conditions - Hope this is implemented on urgent basis. Will also help in financial inclusion.

-- Indian banking packs a lot of inefficiency, which is passed to consumers in terms of higher costs - we have 154 commercial banks. But it has not translated to lower costs for customer. UK banks' fig is a testimony as per article. One thing we can vouch for is low service quality and higher costs. They cannot go hand in hand!!

--   Greater operating freedom for foreign banks. 'Foreign banks in India have been a beneficiary of this protected environment, with their profitability here far exceeding what’s possible in their home markets.' High time customer gets benefit. Increase competition through more foreign banks and their global benchmarks in service (I have supported entry for companies like Amazon to give customer world-class experience)

-- Issuing new bank licenses should be an on-going process. No need for so much hype on it either.

Let more players, local & global, come in.

The checks and controls should be tight to ensure overall, long-term health of banking system.

Let customer get better service. Let us ensure improved financial inclusion.

Future of Banking : Boring to Exciting !

MBank And The Future Of Responsive Banking | TechCrunch

"Banking is boring... "
One of the last innovations to come out of banking ?? ATM :)
Lot of innovation has gone into creative products, some of which took us down into the financial crisis !!

Here is a Polish bank, trying to be slightly innvoative and creative to make the banking experience at least different.

While the on-line options of most banks are as outright boring, apart from user-unfriendly, at least mBank is attempting to give a new touch & feel. It is built on a very responsive design that uses HTML5.

MBank And The Future Of Responsive Banking | TechCrunch

Compared to the 20K plus banks world-wide, this on-line interaction would be a different experience. And as per their claim, the response has been positive.

For more  check out : http://pinterest.com/michalpanowicz/new-mbank-screenshots-video-captures-uiux-look-and/

Indeed, this is applicable to any B2C experience 
Which one of our banks will take this kind of initiative to make banking a little less boring, esp on-line experience ?!

What makes a good bank? | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional

This interesting write up starts off... "After all that has happened over the past few years......". I would say, 'still very much happening', sadly.  

While symptoms appear in different 'formats', at the core of it all, the problems remain. The latest blatant violation on AML-front is one such symptoms.  

Too much focus on something less important, such as bonus cap, is a good example how a typical 'scratching' on the surface is the natural reaction.

• It is wrong to say working extra-long hours is linked to bonus.  Working smartly can still enable a banker to reach levels they call 'exceeding expectations' on his/her score card, which is anyways ridiculed as totally 'un'balanced and subjective. 
• Working late: The health cost and the intangible impact on community is beyond our wildest dreams. It is sad though banks have strict working hours for their customers, they are not so strict when it comes to their own 'working hours' !
• The author goes on to remind us (esp bankers/ex-bankers and others related to 'manage' banks, such as regulatory/govt/admin/audit,etc), it is 'one of most loathed & least trusted professions'. One of the pillars on which a banking institution stood, used to be TRUST!  

A 'boring bank' may not be a good bank, as we observed recently, in the AML controversy. One of the banks, known for its consistent  quarter-on-quarter performance over  decade, has been termed as 'boringly predictably'. But their name came up in AML too.

• Sustainable banks exist, says author. Do we really have ? 

'Can bankers be sustainability leaders of the future?' asks the author...

• At the macro level, all talk about financial inclusion. But at the ground level the focus is on something else, quarterly performance to risk management, with financial inclusion looked at as more of a compliance requirement.

Banks and regulators need to look at ways and means to instil sustainability as one of the core-values at all levels. Not impossible, but not easy...  

That would be holistic banking or karma yoga in Banking. 

What makes a good bank? | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional