Some technological advancement that are gradually making a foray into financial sector:

Some technological advancement that are gradually making a foray into financial sector include big data, artificial intelligence, block chain technology and internet of things. Let me mention a few examples.

1. Banco Santander has expressed its intention to provide secure transactions using voice recognition via its banking app. RBS has trialled “Luvo”, an AI customer service assistance to interact with staff and to potentially serve customers in near future. Japan’s Softbank, in collaboration with Paris-based robotics experts, Aldebaran has developed Pepper, the world’s first humanoid robot. Pepper is already being used in customer services industries as a replacement to an information booth or the welcome desk. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. bank has reportedly introduced Pepper to its flagship branch in Tokyo in 2015 to deal with customer enquiries, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has tested “Nao”, a humanoid robot to interact with customers. Taking cue from their Japanese counterparts, I understand that HDFC Bank in India is also intending to introduce similar automation via robotics.

2. To buttress the point around increasing reliance on technology in the banking sector in India, following are some statistics. As per the latest RBI Annual Report, the share of electronic transactions in total transactions in volume terms has moved up to 84.4 per cent from 74.6 per cent in the previous year. Likewise in value terms, their share has also inched up to 95.2 per cent from 94.6 per cent. At end-March 2016, the national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) facility was available through 130,013 branches of 172 banks, in addition to business correspondent (BC) outlets. NEFT handled 1.2 billion transactions valued at around Rs.83 trillion (approximately $ 1.3 tn) up from 928 million transactions for Rs.60 trillion (approximately $ 0.9 tn) in the previous year. In March 2016, NEFT processed the highest ever monthly volume of 129 million transactions. Similarly, the internet banking and mobile banking based payments are increasing at a rapid pace.