Finacle Whiteboard

A wise man once said that “the most fertile source of insight is hindsight”. That’s never been truer than in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when pretty much everyone said they saw it coming!

Continue reading "Calling for more foresight, less hindsight" »

Posted by Rajashekara V. Maiya at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Collection managers have an unenviable task these days. The global economic downturn has made loan delinquency a near universal problem, no longer restricted to a few customers or segments.

Continue reading "Ease the pressure on collection management" »

Posted by Ashwini Kumar Achutha at 02:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Agility is not about “fastest-finger first”. Rather,  it  is an attitude, a value system, a willingness to be nimble of mind as well as quick of body. It is about understanding that to achieve greater competitive advantage and higher shareholder value, organizations need to innovate  consistently – moving quickly and thoroughly through product and process development – in other words, be more agile. Clearly, there is no place for status quo.

Continue reading "Yes. Agility and Innovation go hand-in-hand!" »

Posted by Rajashekara V. Maiya at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Social and development banking is emerging as an exciting landscape. The unbanked have   special needs - proximity and ease of access, flexibility in savings and repayment schedules, simplicity and speed in processing, small product sizes for loans and low-balance savings accounts, basic financial education and information. More than anything else it is the convenience in banking as simple as buying something in the Kirana/mom-and-pop shop next to his house.  With pressure building up to continually explore new growth avenues, banks are  recognizing the potential  of  the previously unbanked market – In India alone  the  rural population counts for nearly 70% of the entire population i.e. a multifold increase in customer base. According to a 2007 survey, the number of RRBs serving this population is around at 91 with over 14,000 branches, spread across 585 of the 622 identified districts.

Continue reading "Banking the under-banked: Robust back-end support is non-negotiable for RRBs" »

Posted by Rajashekara V. Maiya at 03:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bancassurance business has slowly and steadily gained acceptance worldwide. In pursuit of fee-based income avenues, banks across geographies have joined the Bancassurance bandwagon implementing various business models like setting up joint ventures, working as pure distributors, setting up new insurance businesses and acquiring existing insurance firms. In certain cases, a reverse flow has also been witnessed whereby insurance companies have set up or acquired banking businesses to compete with the serious Bancassurance players.

Continue reading "Bancassurance – time to reassess the IT strategy" »

Posted by Puneet Chhahira at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No-frills accounts, the beginning was modest. Encourage small savings and enable customers to perform basic cash transactions without imposing conditions of minimum balance maintenance. But banks soon realized that by maintaining such a narrow focus and seeking to enable only the most basic transactions such as account or deposit creation among the unbanked community they are losing out on perhaps a very lucrative market. While estimates differ, most put down India’s bank account penetration somewhere between 40 and 50 per cent.

Continue reading "Financial Inclusion in India: The market is ready. And banks." »

Posted by Kiran KSR at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Soaring customer expectations have not only transformed retail banking but have also influenced the way bank treasuries operate. Plain vanilla FX and money market deals are but hygiene today. Treasurers are busy structuring complex deals for their customers; while exotic options are commonly found, plain vanilla American and European options are getting rarer. The focus on risk management is growing as well, as treasurers strive to comply with global regulatory mandates.

Continue reading "Is your Treasury Truly Agile?" »

Posted by Sanjeev Kumar nargotra at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)