South Malabar Gramin Bank is among the forerunner Regional Rural Banks to migrate into Core Banking Solution.
Disclosing this, Mr G. Panduranagan, Chairman, told Business Line that year 2011-12 was the most challenging for SMGB in more ways than one.
The bank had a branch-strength of 235 when the Centre sprung a surprise by directing all RRBs to move into core banking solution (CBS).
The Centre had fixed August 30 as the last date for completing the migration, which was made non-negotiable in subsequent circulars.
This called for a generational shift in the way banking business would be done, but SMGB accepted the challenge, Mr Pandurangan said.
It roped in Wipro as system integrator to tweak around SMGB's stand-alone business model, chose Infosys Finacle as the CBS platform and BSNL as networking partner.
‘Normally, it would take one year to get over with the seamless migration from legacy to CBS platform given the size of our network,” Mr Pandurangan said.
It tested the resolve of the bank but it was its turn to return the compliment to the Government, he said.
The work started in April, 2011 and was over by August 29, a matter of four months. He attributed the success to the wholesome cooperation of the employees.
The next big achievement was the implementation of the National Electronic Fund Transfer System (NEFT) facilitating inter-bank transactions in a jiffy.
“Today, we have also launched our ATM card (Rupay Card), after successfully testing it with the new technology regime,” Mr Pandurangan said.
According to the Government of India guidelines, the RRB has also introduced inter-branch account portability.
This allows for a system where, on transfer of accounts from one branch to another, the account numbers do not get changed.