With 34 branches, three extension counters and a business of Rs 1600 crore, Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank (SVCB) started its computerisation drive in early 2000. Seven years later the business has grown to Rs 5000 crore, and the number of branches has gone up to 70.

The bank has a laudable history of IT adoption, right from developing its GENIUS I core banking solution to data warehousing solutions and IP telephony for inter-branch communication. Ravikiran Mankikar, GM, IT, SVCB, speaks with Biztech2.0 on the bank’s current and future IT initiatives.

Despite being a co-operative bank, SVCB has taken commendable leaps on the IT adoption front. Could you share with us the various IT implementations?

Our mandate has been very simple: to achieve business goals through technology innovations. Keeping this in mind, we mapped a path different from other banks and decided to opt for a core banking solution called GENIUS I that was developed in-house. The software covers all the functionalities in the bank and has automated most of the processes.

We have taken initiatives that few co-operative banks venture into. SVCB is the first co-operative bank to go in for IP telephony, as a result of which our branches communicate through IP phones. All of the bank’s internal processes are paperless, which is made possible by the exchange server handling email and messaging system. DR and BCP are taken care of by online replication of branch-level transactions on the central server at the Mumbai Head Office.

Importantly, we are the first co-operative bank to go live on Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), the payment system mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. We are on a real-time basis on the system, which enables banking transactions to directly hit the RBI server without any human interference. Together with RTGS, which processes payments of more than Rs 1 lakh, the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) handles payments under a lakh.

The RBI has permitted us to install our GENIUS I software in other co-operative banks. Installation at one bank has been rolled out, while implementation is underway in three others.

SVCB is also the first co-operative bank to implement GOLDMINE – a data warehousing solution developed in-house. Can you throw some light on it?

As a bank, decision-making is a dynamic process for us. The MIS reporting system enables access to information that’s critical in taking these decisions. GOLDMINE (Genius Online Data Mining) works as an online MIS for the bank. For example, if the management plans to change the interest rates pertaining to a customer segment, it can decide on the rates by leveraging the flexibility of GOLDMINE.

Have you rolled out any new IT implementations recently?

The CACHE 24 or e-token introduced for senior citizens is an adaptation of the ATM card. Older customers are reluctant to withdraw money using the ATM. So, we came up with an innovation whereby the bank provides a sort of an ATM card to such a customer, who inserts the card and specifies the amount to be withdrawn. The amount is debited as soon as the card is issued. The amount to be withdrawn is mentioned so that the card cannot be misused if it falls into the wrong hands.

What are some of the upcoming implementations?

We are planning to go on SWITCH, which will enable our customers to withdraw money from other banks (about 8000 across India). The interface for this will be developed in-house. The other project at hand is net-banking, which will put us on par with other private banks.