Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram Friday asked banks to get ready for iberalisation in the sector, saying it will be to their benefit in the coming years.
Liberalisation would help banks progress in the next 10-15 years, much like nationalisation enabled banks to advance in the 1970 and 1980s, he said at a function that marked the launching of SyndBank Services Limited, a wholly-owned BPO of Syndicate Bank and its 525th centralised banking solution branch.
Asking banks not to shy away from competition, Chidambaram said, "You banks should not be afraid of enemies. It's your foes, enemies and opponents who put steel in you to go forward."
He also urged the banks not to be afraid of technology. "Please accept technology," he said.
Chidambaram said money remitted by overseas Indians to their home country was about $30 billion (about Rs 132,000 crore) annually and this figure would go further up with increase in the number of Indians working abroad.
Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director N Kantha Kumar said it was the first nationalised bank to launch a BPO subsidiary.
The bank's General Manager C M Raman said the BPO outfit's role included filing income tax returns for clients at nominal cost and undertaking office-related functions like maintenance of credit card/debit card/ATM related data. The bank also planned to introduce mobile banking, he said.