Digital India: With banking moving online, fintech to be way forward for banks, payment system, says SBI MD

SBI managing director Ashwani Bhatia said that the fintech sector has a lot of growth potential and opportunity as is evident from the example of the State Bank of India itself.

As more and more banking related processes go digital, fintech is expected to be the way forward for Indian banking sector and payments system. SBI managing director Ashwani Bhatia said that the fintech sector has a lot of growth potential and opportunity as is evident from the example of the State Bank of India itself. The bank currently gets 91% of jobs done digitally now. The same would have been unimaginable 35 years ago, Ashwani Bhatia said. “We believe that this 91% will become 100%. For a bank like State Bank of India, and other banks obviously, everything is going to move digitally. There is no doubt about that. Penetration of smartphones is also going to increase,” he said at a virtual conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Future for bank branches

With banks going digital, branches will merely serve the purpose of distribution points just the way they do in Europe countries and other countries. “I am sure as we evolve, and we will evolve very very fast. Fintech is the way forward as far as the Indian banking system is concerned and the payment system is concerned,” Ashwani Bhatia said adding that this is where the opportunities lie. 

Fintech refers to companies or services that use technology to offer financial services to businesses and consumers. Banks and fintech will co-exist to drive the ecology of money, Bandhan Bank managing director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, who also attended the virtual event, said. They will co-exist because each offers something that is unique to it and customers will need both of them to get the best value.

Catering to various Indian markets 

Stating that India is not one market but a sum of various small markets, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said that Fintech companies have to develop products for each segment rather than one consolidated item.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a major push to digital payments adoption and it is also expected to register significant growth even after COVID-19 is over.