Trends to dominate the BFSI industry.

A market place is not a picnic spot, it’s filled with fierce competition. The ever-changing landscape, where riding on a trend can be the difference between tremendous success and utter failure. Here are the top local trends that BFSI industries need to follow to stay relevant and ahead of the competition.

Services will matter more than products –

To service is to sell is the philosophy to dominate the market right now and for coming days. Banks will leverage their rich customer data to "service first", rather than sell. Sales will happen because banks anticipate service moments. This will need large technology investments to sense "customer moments" and respond to them in real time. Banks will shift their beliefs from a product-oriented organisation to a customer-driven organisation. Customer will make the rules.

Paperless and online –

When it comes to the process of applying for a loan or opening a new account, customers desire speed, ease and transparency, along with instantaneous decision-making capabilities. These are no longer a luxury but instead have become a hygiene factor and a necessity. They would also like the power to customise as per their needs and more choices for financial products and service. Future banking will be online and paperless with digitisation. Tab banking and mobilebanking will take the throne. With the help of Aadhar platform, loans will be disbursed within mere seconds and virtual cards will be issued instantly

Personalisation will be the key –

More effort will be put in to make the whole experience more personalised. India has more than 440 million millennials, more than China. This mobile-first consumer segment wants choice, convenience and personalisation; customised offers and an experience that is easy and intuitive while also being contextual. With infrastructure development and increase in smartphone usage, customers expect to use services anywhere, anytime. This is revolutionising the consumer experience. People are increasingly using mobile devices to research potential purchases, compare prices for goods and services and transact using mobile banking. 

Contributor of Banking Liberalisation

It is true that the 1991 budget changed the face of the Indian economy, he changed the norms and enable private banks to be born. He changed the rules of the game, but there are many players as well who contributed largely in the uplifting the Indian banking sector from the shambles. N. Vaghul is one of them.

N Vaghul, former chairman, ICICI.

He ushered in the new financial segment.

N Vaghul did not build the institution, but he knew who could. If ICICI Bank and its affiliates have not only survived butt thrived and its executives are part of the Indian financial services landscape today, it is undisputed because of - Vaghul the visionary. Vaghul was a commercial banker who started his career in State Bank of India and became the youngest chairman of a state-run lender - Bank of India - at 44. He quit banking in disgust due to interference from bureaucrats.

But things changed when Rajiv Gandhi needed someone with financial expertise, then RBI governor RN Malhotra called upon Vaghul to head ICICI. He turned a staid term-lending institution into a vibrant financial powerhouse with interests ranging from stock broking to lending to infrastructure, with insurance and advisory rolled into the mix.

Many financial supermarkets have come into existence since liberalisation in 1991, but the thought leader for all of them was undeniably Vaghul. If IDBI, UTI and SBI all ventured into various wings of financial services, they all took a leaf out of ICICI's strategy laid down by Vaghul.

His ability to engage comfortably with people at various levels without being conscious of the hierarchy made him an acceptable and popular leader.

In pre-liberalisation days, when the public sector was the monarch of the economy, a job in SBI was considered an achievement. Those who got such jobs stayed with the organisation until retirement. But Vaghul quit to take up teaching at the National Institute of Bank Management when a militant Shiv Sena union was poised to make trouble for him as HR head of SBI. The party at that time had an anti-south Indian platform.

The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), as it was known then, was no different from Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) or Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI). If 25 years later ICICI is miles ahead, it is because Vaghul saw no future for the lender unless it was transformed.

ICICI Bank is today worth Rs 1.52 lakh crore; IDBI Bank, which had a bigger market share in the 1980s, is at about a 10th of that, while IFCI has almost faded into irrelevance.

The poster boy of banking liberalisation.

Before the 1991 budget by Dr Manmohan Singh that changed the face of the Indian economy, the government had the full authority over the economy and the banking sector. Banking sector had no sense of private entrepreneurship. Though the budget of 1991 changed the rules of the game, there were many players who made a tremendous contribution of their own in liberalising the banking industry.

C. Rangarajan, RBI governor (1992 – 1997)

Before 1991, the banking section was much different than today. There were no rules for bad loans, the bank didn’t have any fixed deposit schemes. There were no mentions of either profit or loss in banking sections. And to open a branch banks had to wait for months to get the RBI’s permission. There was no financial marketplace. RBI dictated the exchange rates based on what the bureaucrats felt it should be, they also decided who got loans. All in all, bankers did not do banking, they were mere executioners.

That is till the C. Rangarajan became the governor of the RBI, public sector banks are still largely in bad shape, but there're competition and consumers have been able to fund their dream homes and cars through loans. Also, individuals have made fortunes by buying bank stocks in two decades. All thanks to the banking reforms Rangarajan lead from 1992 to 1997.

Besides playing an active role in rupee devaluation as deputy governor, Rangarajan laid the foundation for modern Indian banking without having to turn the economy, markets and banks inside out. He was met with some resistance when he prescribed capital norms and he had to convince stakeholders that this was an essential step to make the system more vibrant, viable and reliable.

Under the leadership of Rangarajan, private banks came into being. He unleashed the competitive spirit in Indian banking, resulting in the HDFC Banks and ICICIs of today. He was instrumental in ending the government's monarchy over the banking sector and stopping its abuse of power and position by monetising debt, which had made monetary policy ineffective and undermined RBI's independence.

Rangarajan's imprint was not only confined to monetary policy, it also extended to the elimination of automatic monetization and a shift in the issuance of government bonds to market-based auction system that reduced the fiscal dominance of monetary policy and led to the development of government debt markets.

But, the unfortunate part is his reforms were discontinued after his tenure. The Narasimhan committee proposed the DE-liberalisation of the banking sector as the RBI became hesitant about moving ahead with the liberalisation because of a deep-rooted suspicion of open markets.