NCR, the global corporation best known in India for its ATMs, expects the nationwide adoption of the image-based clearance system to drive the growth of the Indian market for banking related IT products. |
"All stakeholders are working closely with the Reserve Bank of India for adoption of standards for image-based services in banking and its implementation across the banking system through an Act of Parliament," said Deepak Chandnani, managing director of NCR Corporation India Ltd. |
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Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the Nasscom event Infocomm 2004, Chandnani said then roll-out of the system would logically be done under the supervision and direction of RBI and the enabling resolution, but the cost would have to be bone by individual banks. |
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Interestingly, the changes would place all banks in the country at par in terms of a critical technology platform, unilke the ATM movement in the banking sector which was spearheaded by foreign banks then implemented by private banks and rolled out much later by government-owned or old-generation Indian banks. |
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This placed the last category at a disadvantage in terms of technology vis-a-vis banks in the other two categories. |
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Chandnani said growth driven by new technology would run parallel to growth in NCR's ATM business. |
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"However, the nature of the business was changing and more and more revenue in the total income basket would come from ATM related services and maintenance contracts rather than machine sales," he predicted. |
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Banks were also now in a position to offer even more sophisticated products through ATMs, like hawking pre-sanctioned loans to ATM users with established credit-worthiness, or using the machines for advertising other products. NCR was the leader in the 16,000 strong ATM business in the country, claimed Chandnani. |
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ATMs were now available at nearly 800 locations but the strong urban bias continued to dominate the business. |
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To put ATMs in non-urban locations, NCR has launched an India-specific ATM which had a longer stand-by power life, and was dust resistant to operate at non-air-conditioned sites in rural India with erratic power supply. |
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Adoption of image-based clearing would allow customers seamless access to account-related services by digitising identities and enabling them to transact without shackles across the banking system. |
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NCR's worldwide customer services (WCS) division provided maintenance and industry-leading metrics in critical areas such as fix rate, on-time service delivery, and customer service satisfaction, said Chandnani. |
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The service basket covered operations management, consulting, deployment, and maintenance, being delivered directly by WCS as well as through partnerships with suppliers like Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Dell Computer and Sun Microsystems. |
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