As risky as it gets - Ohad Samet's weblog: Smart, non-techie people sought for new project

As risky as it gets - Ohad Samet's weblog: Smart, non-techie people sought for new project

Canara Bank to launch its eLounge services in Bangalore and Delhi

            One more public sector banks, has joined the eLounge bandwagon. The latest public sector bank is Canara Bank.

            Like all other PSB’s the eLounge is targeted at Metro customers only. Somewhere Indian Bankers think that only the Metro customers are only interested for eLounge facilities, and there is no demand in Semi-Urban, Tier I and Tier II cities.

            Banks would be surprised at the latent demand in non-metro cities. In metro cities, majority of the bank customers have access to secure computer access, through which they prefer to carry out their banking needs via the Banks net modules.

            Canara Bank’s  e-Lounge is one stop facility targeted at corporate, IT and business professionals depending on their needs.

Like other eLounges, Canara Bank eLounge also offers similar services viz

01) Services of ATM,

02)cash deposit kiosk,

03)check deposit kiosk,

04) pass book update,

05)internet banking terminal,

06)online trading terminal,

07)corporate web site terminal to offer latest information of bank’s services.

            The first e-Lounge facility will be inaugurated by bank’s Chairman and Managing Director R K Dubey, at Koramangala Branch, Bangalore.

            Yes, even in Metros if the facility is properly publicized, there is a fair chance that Bank Customers would make use of the varied facilities. Otherwise, it will be just another revenue guzzler. 

NFS ATM Operational Excellence Awards 2012

       

As the year 2012 came to a close, NPCI announced the 2012 NFS ATM Operational Excellence Awards.

In the coming years, this Award will be an annual feature. Awards are a performance booster to the teams in any organization.

The NFS ATM Operational Excellence Awards are no exception. These Awards recognize their NFS Member banks performance on the NFS ATM Network.

These awards are decided on the basis of assessment of specific operational criteria. The winners are selected by an eminent and independent Panel of Jury.

To broad-base the awards arena, the Banks are grouped into any one category of

1. Public Sector Banks

2. MNC and Private Sector Banks

3. Scheduled Co-operative Banks

And, the Award goes to :

Sr. No	Bank Name	Category	Position
01	Union Bank of India	Public Sector Banks	Winner
02	Indian Bank	Public Sector Banks	Runner-up
03	ICICI Bank	MNC and Private Sector Banks	Winner
04	HDFC Bank	MNC and Private Sector Banks	Runner-up
05	Cosmos Bank	Scheduled Co-operative Banks	Winner
06	Saraswat Co-Operative Bank	Scheduled Co-operative Banks	Runner-up

The jury also took cognizance of excellent performance of member banks based on certain specific parameters. A Special Jury Award was given to recognize the performance of select banks based on their performances in specific ATM operational area.

The following banks were the Winners of the Special Jury Award:

Sr.       Bank Name

1           State Bank of India

2          Axis Bank

3          Andhra Bank

4          IDBI Bank

5          Allahabad Bank

6          Citibank N.A

7          Karnataka Bank

8          IndusInd Bank

9          Punjab & Maharashtra Co-Operative Bank

            

List of Banks on the APBS Platform as on 22 Jan 2013

            As on date there are 39 banks on the APBS platform. This means the respective bank customers can receive funds based only on their Aadhaar number.

          The major addition of the banks was the in January 2013, after the launch of Government of India’s ‘Direct Cash Transfer’, scheme.

          It is good to know that Gramin Banks too are joining the APBS bandwagon. This is important as majority of the beneficiaries are currently located in the Tier IV to Tier VI towns, and Gramin Banks have a strong presence there.

          What is IIN No?

         

          IIN stands for Institution Identification Number. This is allotted by NPCI for banks joining the APBS network.

It is envisaged that the ‘APBS Mapper module’, will store the ‘Aadhaar number’, and respective IIN No. The transaction will be routed to the respective bank based on the IIN against the respective ‘Aadhaar Number’.

At present, it is not clear as to how sub-member Bank customers would benefit from APBS.

           

SL No	Bank Name	IIN No
1	Union Bank of India	508500
2	Bank of India	508505
3	Syndicate Bank	508508
4	Canara Bank	508532
5	ICICI Bank Ltd	508534
6	State Bank of India	508548
7	Punjab National Bank	508568
8	Oriental Bank of Commerce	508585
9	Central Bank of India	607115
10	Axis Bank	607153
11	Bank of Maharashtra	607387
12	Vijaya Bank	607075
13	South Indian Bank	607167
14	IDBI	607095
15	Federal Bank Ltd	607165
16	Dena Bank	508547
17	United Bank of India	607028
18	Indian Bank	607105
19	Bank of Baroda	606985
20	UCO Bank	607066
21	State Bank of Patiala	606990
22	State Bank of Hyderabad	606998
23	Allahabad Bank	607117
24	Andhra Bank	607170
25	Indian Overseas Bank	508541
26	State Bank of Travancore	606991
27	State Bank of Mysore	606989
28	Punjab & Sind Bank	607087
29	State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur	606987
30	Corporation Bank	607184
31	HDFC Bank Ltd	607152
32	Indusind Bank	607189
33	Thane Janatha Sahakari Bk	607130
34	ING Vysya Bank	607222
35	Tripura Gramin Bank	607065
36	South Malabar Gramin bank	607388
37	Pragathi Gramin Bank	607389
38	Shreyas Gramin Bank	607390
39	Punjab & Maharashtra Bank Ltd	607057

Aadhaar Payment Bridge System – The heart of GOI’s DCT.

            The APBS was conceptualized by NPCI in the mid 2011, with Reserve Bank of India, according permission to launch it in October 2011. Bank of India was the first bank to go live on APBS, followed by ICICI Bank and Union Bank of India.

            The testing field was the state of Jharkhand.

APBS was built around the Aadhaar Numbers being issued by UIDAI. The Aadhaar number is the common link between the Government Departments and the beneficiary.

The core idea of APBS is to ensure that the Aadhaar number holder receives his/her funds from the Government in the respective bank account. The Aadhaar number holder need not inform all the government departments in case of the change of his bank account number.

The mapping between the bank account number and the Aadhaar number would be via the ‘Mapper Module’, built in APBS.   

In the long run, this approach would result in a) minimal transaction cost b) reduced TAT c) minimal customer complaints d) minimal recon issues.

The present process flow is as follows: -

01) The government departments submit the transaction files to NPCI via their Sponsor Bank between 10.30am to 12.30pm.

02)Around 2.00pm, NPCI switches the transactions to the recipient banks, to the banks as mapped on the Aadhaar Mapper which is a part of APBS.

03)By 3.00pm the beneficiary banks would have passed on the credits to the respective beneficiary account holders.

04)By 5.00pm, the beneficiary banks intimate NPCI the status of the individual transactions i.e successful or rejected.

05)By 7.00pm, NPCI updates the statuses to the Sponsor Banks.

All the above happens on the same day. Initially there is only one payment cycle. Yes, the APBS can handle multiple payment cycle, it is up to the sponsor banks and the government departments to demand more payment cycle, in case of surge in the volumes.