Digitisation of banking in India now a ‘pull’ factor: Ex-SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar

Former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar said in a speech recently that digitisation of banking services in India, which started as a "push" has now turned into a "pull" factor.

"Everyone is talking about technology in a big way. The government's push to digital initially, I would say, was a push. But, now it has changed into a pull factor," Kumar said at the Management Development Institute in Gurugram today.
 
He added, "Now the consumers want it. COVID accelerated that because people now want everything touch less."

Talking about the fintech sector, the veteran banker said that the sector has an advantage that it can design the frontend first and subsequently the backend. He further stated that people are now more willing to embrace technology-driven solutions and digital payments have risen exponentially in India in the past few years.

Kumar mentioned that cost of service delivery can go down substantially with the help of digital infrastructure. He also hailed the Jan Dhan Yojana-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM Trinity) for pushing digital payments growth in India. Kumar has been in the news for his memoir that released in October this year -- The Custodian of Trust - a Banker's Memoir. Kumar wrote the memoir after his retirement as the SBI boss, and in his own words, "when he had a lot of leisure time".
 
Rajnish Kumar was the chairman of SBI from October 2017 to October 2020. He also served as the Managing Director of the National Banking Group and the Managing Director (Compliance and Risk) at SBI.

(With agency inputs)

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