‘Digitisation Is The Need Of The Hour’

“Digitization is not a choice today. It is the need of the hour if you want to retain your customers,” said Pradeep Naik, Chief Executive Officer, Raigad District Central Cooperative Bank. Naik was airing his views participating in a panel discussion on ‘Digital Transformation in Cooperative Banks’ at the BW Businessworld’s ‘Cooperative Conclave Maharashtra 2017.’

Digitisation needs huge funds and that is the main problem faced by cooperative banks, Naik observed. He urged the state and central governments and Reserve Bank of India to lend a helping hand to cooperative banks to make digitisation a reality.

Ram Rastogi, Career Banker and Payment Expert observed, “An efficient payment system increases the GDP of the country by 1 per cent.” Rastogi urged the cooperative banks to use the technology and increase their business while making a note that many of the cooperative banks’ debit cards are not operational most of the time.

Challenges in front of cooperative banks are the same faced by any bank during the initial days. “Identifying the right solutions is the major challenge before cooperative banks,” said Ajit Kumar L, Deputy Vice President – Treasury Department, Federal Bank.

Digitisation can scale the customer base of cooperative banks, opined Gaurav Zutshi, Chief Digital Officer, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group. “Cost of technology is affordable today and it is the right time for cooperative banks to adopt technology and collaborate with third party financial services providers and grow,” Zutshi added.

“Digitisation is the second way to outgrow from your computer systems,” concluded Manish Bharucha, Co-founder, Kyzer Software, who also moderated the discussion.