Digital banking on the rise, nearly 72% of PSB transactions done online: MoS Finance

The Ministry of Finance on Monday said that the share of financial transactions of Public Sector Banks (PSB) done through digital channels has now increased. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad claimed that nearly 72% of financial transactions of PSBs are now done digitally. The MoS for Finance also informed that Digital banking and Internet banking has now hit new heights. The Minister stated that the financial transactions undertaken through the home and mobile channels have also increased.

Digital transactions in Public Sector Banks 

The Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said that the share of financial transactions undertaken through such methods has now increased from 29% in FY2018-19 to 76% in FY2020-21. In a release, the Minister said that the government has now taken a number of steps to facilitate digital banking, doorstep banking services and digital lending platforms.

Karad claimed that the use of Internet banking has now increased marginally. Explaining his claims, the Minister said that the achievement has been enabled through an increase in the average number of services offered (43), customer-friendly features (135) and regional language customer interface (8). Karad also mentioned the introduction of end-to-end automated digital lending in larger PSBs for unsecured personal loans also supported the cause. He also added that the loans to micro-enterprises, named “Shishu Mudra”, in five PSBs, and renewals of loans to micro, small and medium enterprises also yielded results.

The Minister informed that digital loan requests have also been enabled. “Digital retail loan request initiation through digital channels has been enabled in all the seven large PSBs.  with retail disbursements from loan requests so initiated in the financial year (FY) 2020-21 amounting to Rs. 40,819 crore,” the statement read.

“Customer-need-driven, analytics-based credit offers have been given an impetus, resulting in Rs. 49,777 crore of fresh retail loan disbursements by the seven larger PSBs in the financial year (FY) 2020-21, the statement by the MoS for Finance added. It went on to say that the 72% increase in the digital financial transactions of PSBs comes as a result of such moves. According to the release, customers active on digital channels have also doubled from 3.4 crore in FY2019-20 to 7.6 crore in FY2020-21.

IMAGE: PTI