Introduction

A bank is a financial intermediate that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities ,either directly or through capital markets. The oldest bank still in existence is Monte dei Paschi di Siena, headquartered in Siena, Italy, which has been operating continuously since 1472

History Of Banking
Banking in the modern sense of the word can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to the rich cities in the north like Florence, Venice and Genoa Banks can be traced back to ancient times even before money when temples were used to store commodities Banks played a key role in moving from gold and silver based coinage to paper money, redeemable against the bank's holdings.

 Banking in India originated in the last decades of the 18th century. The first banks were The General Bank of India which started in 1786, and the Bank of Hindustan, both of which are now defunct. The oldest bank in existence in India is the State Bank of India, which originated in the Bank of Calcutta in June 1806, which almost immediately became the Bank Of Bengal . Foreign banks too started to arrive, particularly in Calcutta , in the 1860s. The Comptoire d'Escompte de Paris opened a branch in Calcutta in 1860, and another in Bombay in 1862; branches in Madras and Puducherry then a French colony, followed. HSBC established itself in Bengal in 1869.Calcutta was the most active trading port in India, mainly due to the trade of the British Empire, and so became a banking center.

Banking In India

 The major steps to regulate banking included:

Post Independence

In 1948, the Reserve Bank of India, India's central banking authority, was nationalized, and it became an institution owned by the Government of India. In 1949, the Banking Regulation Act was enacted which empowered the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) "to regulate, control, and inspect the banks in India." The Banking Regulation Act also provided that no new bank or branch of an existing bank could be opened without a license from the RBI, and no two banks could have common directors.

Nationalisation The RBI was nationalized on January 1, 1949 in terms of

the Reserve Bank of India (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act, 1948 (RBI, 2005b). By the 1960s, the Indian banking industry had become an important tool to facilitate the development of the Indian Economy. A second dose of nationalization of 6 more commercial banks followed in 1980 The stated reason for the nationalization was to give the government more control of credit delivery. With the second dose of nationalization, the GOI controlled around 91% of the banking business of India After this, until the 1990s, the nationalised banks grew at a pace of around 4%, closer to the average growth rate of the Indian economy.

Liberlization
In the early 1990s, the then Narsimha Rao government embarked on a policy of liberization, licensing a small number of private banks. These came to be known as New Generation tech-savvy banks, and included Global Trust Bank (the first of such new generation banks to be set up), which later amalgamated with Oriental Bank of Commerce, Axis Bank(earlier as UTI Bank), ICICI Bank And HDFC Bank. Modern banks offer many services to attract a loyal clientele. Banks have grown from simply being a place to keep your money to corporate giants with offerings across the board

 For those persons who are on the go, banks today offer online or Internet banking. Many services are available over the computer, making it easy to check balances, make online bill payments and balance your cheque book. Someone can apply for a loan or even purchase savings bonds from your bank through your home computer. For those persons who are on the go, banks today offer online or Internet banking. Many services are available over the computer, making it easy to check balances, make online bill payments and balance your cheque book. Someone can apply for a loan or even purchase savings bonds from your bank through your home computer.

 What are the key factors that appeal to bank customers and entice them to do more business? As in most service industries, overall responsiveness and behavioural attributes account for a 10-percent margin in customer satisfaction. When it comes to speed of service and the attitude of the people who deliver that service, banks should improve their personal touch. Furthermore, advanced technologies provide bank managers and staff valuable help because convoluted legacy systems hinder the prompt delivery of banking services and the integration of customer information. Technology also plays a role with other drivers of customer satisfaction, such as quality of service and product innovation.

Customer Satisfaction Lags

Untapped Business Potential

On the consumer-banking side, deposits, savings, personal loans, bankcards, mortgages, auto finance, and payments have provided a traditional product foundation for many decades. For wholesale banking, the foundation has been commercial lending, cash management, trade finance, treasury products, and securities processing. Most banks still have to figure out effective ways to combine these diverse product dimensions into more comprehensive relationship offerings.


Banks have many opportunities to realize untapped valuefor instance, by offering the following characteristics: o Innovation : Broadband delivery and multimedia technologies provide a fertile ground to structure proactive and dynamic products that redefine the way banks interact with customers. o Personalization : Adaptive product configurations in real time and enterprise architectures optimize individual financial profiles to take advantage of a comprehensive set of assets and liabilities. o Integration : As with companies in other industries, insurance and securities firms embed banking offerings by linking their businesses tightly to a federated network of service providers

Meeting Emerging Customers Needs To justify the expense of maintaining branches,

banks are seeking ways to offer new services of value at their branches and looking for better ways to cross-sell and up-sell there. During the past two centuries, banks have kept a stronghold on the risk-management function. Technology shifts, new markets, and younger customer generations are causing other industries to become more involved in financial services.

 In order to increase its customer base, the Industrial Development Bank of India offers a number of customized and innovative banking services. The services are meant to offer cent percent satisfaction to the customers. Some of the well known services offered by the bank are: Wholesale financial services, Retail banking services, Corporate advisory services. The continuing evolution of the banking and financial market has created opportunities both for providers and for users of financial products and this evolution have proven beneficial to the economy. Modern day banks have extended the concept of Mobile Banking. Some banks in the European and American continents have launched floating branches on boats that provide full branch bank services, to the convenience and delight of customers living in longhouses along the river banks. The Korean Technology Banking Corporation (KTB) is setting up a Technology Financing Information Center to serve the various needs of its clients, most of which are setting up jointventure overseas. The centers will contain a huge database of information analyzed from various data from internal and external sources.

What is CCMS?
An innovative service specifically tailored to meet the requirements of Corporates/Business houses/Partnership firms Speedy collection of outstation cheques and other instruments Pooling of funds at designated centres More importantly, providing funds to the Corporates as per their need Customised MIS reports

Benefits to the Corporates

Funds available as per need on day zero, day one, day two, day three etc. Corporates can plan their cash flows Bank interest saved as instruments are collected faster Affordable and competitive rates MIS reports customised to meet individual Corporate's requirement Single point enquiry for all queries Operational in 148 Cities/Centres

INNOVATIVE BANKING CUSTOMER SERVICE

A conventional bank may treat its customers as coldly as the cash they deposit or borrow. Many banks have conveniently used control and security as reasons for their remarkably slow and impersonal services. Others banks, shedding their conservative "finance and control" images, have likewise adopted innovative service strategies and practices. Banco Frances has established an information center or "encyclopaedia" in the waiting lounge. Here customers can browse through various bits and pieces of important service information like the average time to finish a transaction and the company's products and services. Information about the busiest day or days in the branch are displayed so that customers may want to avoid these periods.

 Some banks and financial institutions have done such a remarkable job in improving and reinventing customer service that they themselves have become the benchmarks of other companies outside the banking sector. For instance, American Express, the credit card company, is the recognized benchmark to emulate when it comes to improving a company's billing process. Amex's billing is reportedly the fastest and most accurate in the world in any industry. Xerox, the benchmark for many quality practices, used the Amex model in enhancing its billing systems. Innovative banking in customer service is indeed a welcome and long-awaited development. We hope that other banks and financial institutions will follow suit soon. Satisfied customers are the best guarantee of stability and growth.

Interview from customers of ICICI

Mr. A had visited the Borivali branch of ICICI Bank in the month of April 2009 to foreclose his Housing Loan at ICICI Bank and to switch to any other bank which offers a reduced rate of interest. Mr. Sparsh Gupta, a young employee of the Bank, suggested him to switch to an adjustable rate of interest to avail of reduced rate of interest and to eliminate the hassles of loan transfer. He is happy at having done this as his rate of interest has got reduced substantially. Mr. A who got his loan transferred to another Bank had to face a lot of bureaucratic paperwork , as the Manager at that Bank was himself unsure of the documentation . He had to also pay for valuation and other formalities in terms of time and money.


Mr. B has been with bank for 8 years now and the service bank provide, especially web service, is amazing. Mr. B is a globe trotter and have always found the Bank to be more customer friendly. Also, the responses to the queries on e-mails are very quick. Hats off to staff for being a part of such an innovative Bank. Everything comes without doubt a passionate Bank. Keep up the good work!

THANK YOU