Some thoughts to mitigate hardship.

Bank Staff as it is, were under severe work pressure even before the introduction of demonetisation. Demonetisation, cash exchange and short cash supply have worsened their position even further. Since November 8th banks are mainly grappling with how to manage the long queues, unmanageable crowd and irate customers. Most of their time and energy is used up in the demonetisation exercise leaving no time to do their core banking / commercial activity. A new directive / instruction comes every other day bringing in some changes in the existing arrangement or a new thing introduced. All these initiatives which are coming fast and furious have left the staff high and dry. All these have rubbed salt into the wound.

What can be done to mitigate the hardship?

Some stray thoughts:

1. Roll back the business hours of bank to the earlier 2.00 pm or 2.30 pm.

Why?

The government/RBI is determined to push the economy towards Cashless or less cash, digitisation etc, and even a cap on cash transactions may also be a reality sometime in near future. Under these circumstances keeping the cash counters open for a long time during the day is not required or warranted.

Benefits:

The scarce man power can be better utilised and there will be a considerable relief to the staff manning the front line. It releases quite a good amount of time to engage the staff in other banking activities like monitoring /recovery of NPAs etc.

2. Introduce mobile ATMs on the lines of mobile libraries.

This will reduce the footfalls at the branches. It's a win win situation for both the customer and the bank.

3. Introduce and increase the number of non cash branches. Not all bank branches necessarily do cash transactions. Because "cash is no more the king".

The disruptive technology that is engulfing the banking has brought about a metamorphosis of sorts.

Banking is no more the same anymore. Introduction of payment platforms like paytm, SBI buddy, wallet banking, mobile banking, Internet banking etc, have rendered the conventional/traditional cash dispensing counters at the bank redundant.

4. Introduce 5 day week at the earliest. Bank employees really need a two day week end. We have no time for personal life, family life and social life. All along, slogging in the Bank late hours and early hours.

5. Introduce branch managers allowance.

Nowadays heading a branch could be a nightmare. Although no amount of monetary incentive could compensate the ordeals a branch manager undergoes - something is better than nothing.

The bank job has lost its charm/sheen it once enjoyed. Moreover the job market provides abundant opportunities for the young and skilled people. And the salary structure in the banks is a great dampener.

All the above mentioned suggestions if given a serious thought and implemented might mitigate the hardship of the Banker. It also attracts good talent to banks. Otherwise left overs, residuals in the job market will end up joining the bank.

And State Bank has to survive at least another two centuries.

K.N.Krishnan. 9449612446; 9449841375

VRS in Associate Banks - What it means to SBI.

The VRS announced in the associate banks has come as a big surprise. For many in those banks it is a God sent opportunity. They were a bit nervous at the idea of merger simply because the work culture in SBI was a bit too much for them. The work culture in Associate Banks unlike SBI as per their own admission is lethargic and relaxed. To meet standards of SBI work culture it really requires some extra effort on the part of the associate Bank's employees. This appears to be a tall order for some given their less hectic and relaxed atmosphere they were accustomed to. Against this background, the response to the VRS, it is assumed will be overwhelming. And they are rubbing hands in glee at the prospect of VRS.

If this is so, then what it means to the post merger SBI. Already SBI is groaning under severe shortage of staff. Large number of branches are manned by single officers. With the merger of the associate bank branches with a truncated staff (on account of VRS), the pressure on staff in SBI post merger will further increase and may reach breakdown levels. There may be a pretext /excuse from the management that branches will be merged, relocated or closed. All this technical jargon will not offer any real relief to the already battered staff. Whatever relief IF AT ALL ANY may not be commensurate with the addition of the branches. At the end of the day the number of accounts will remain the same. More over, will the government allow closure of branches having tasted the advantage of huge SBI network for implementing its programmes? The sum total of this exercise is more burden to the already beleaguered SBI staff.

Is the time not too far to repent for being a SBI staff.

I request all to participate in the discussion on this blog.

K.N.Krishnan,
Dy Manager, ZO, BZ-1, Basavangudi.

Cashless economy and the banking.

There is lot of talk going on in the country about moving towards cashless economy. Right from the common man to the Prime minister of the country the subject of cashless transactions has attracted attention. Rather, the discourse has been brought to Centre stage by the Modi government in its efforts to clean up the economy from black money dirt. What it means to the banks? How banking is impacted from this shift from cash intensive economy to cashless economy? More than banks, it means a lot to the government.

The first and foremost and immediate benefit of this shift is, it will bring businesses/all the transactions to the tax bracket. This will improve the tax mop up substantially and effortlessly. This single step is a very effective tool and has twin advantages. Two birds can be hit with a single stone. One - tax collection will improve. Two - black money generation is restricted to that extent. The beauty of this is, one is inversely proportional to the other. The more the tax collection, the less is the generation of black money. After all black money is that part of the earnings which is not taxed/accounted for.

Coming to the banks - enormous number of accounts will be opened. Footfalls will increase manifolds. Because large section of the population in India and vast geographical area is still unbanked. This section of the population is forced to enter the banking system whether or not they are interested. Because henceforth it will become a basic necessity. Banks must gear up to receive this influx of new customers to their books. They have got to put in place the men and machinery required for this surge of clientele. And they don't have a choice. They have got to oblige all and sundry. They just don't have the option of choice of the customer. Even now public sector banks don't have that option. This will affect various profitability ratios adversely because banks will end up doing something which given an option they would have avoided. But private and foreign banks are extremely discriminative in the choice of the customers. This has to be put an end. A level playing field has to be created for all the banks. There is also in the air, something called Banking Transactions Tax (BTT) as a part of tax reforms. Government has to pay the banks a percentage of this BTT for their work to compensate their transaction costs. Banking transactions tax (BTT) and cashless transactions may one day in future go hand in hand. And it is for the good of the Nation.