Banking's Soul-search
If the Indian economy has to accelerate to rapid growth, the Rs 180-lakh-crore banking industry will have to play a pivotal role. But, for that, its loan book will have to expand multi-fold
Rajeev Dubey, Editor, Business Today
The jury is out on whether the bank of the future will be a bank as we know it or the business of banking would be hijacked by a tech firm like WhatsApp, Google or Apple! After all, banking today is more about technology than about handling money. Curiously, even the latter is managed - by technology.
Both sides are readying their armoury and neither is short on ambition. Banks are adopting technology at an unprecedented pace and tech firms have already made forays into payments. That provides them the customer data to cross-sell other banking and finance products to the customer in the future - anything from personal and auto loans to insurance and pension products. Whether banks will pivot to resemble tech firms or tech firms will resemble banks is an iconic tussle already playing out. Until the models settle down, the churn in the industry is conspicuous.