with correlations - such as the increased payments during christmas or even during pleasant weather situations while catastrophies ( such as the 9 / 11 event ) or bad weather resulted in lesser payment realisations. based on this he replanned his strategies. banks could do well to keep this story in their minds while planning so that their products and services meet employee and customer requirements - all of which provide improved results for banks in the long run. let me now conclude on a positive note. indian banks have proved that it based upgradation of banking services can be achieved within short time spans and at remarkably accurate levels. we have some of the largest core banking implementations in the world, we have a unique network for the exclusive use of banks in the form of the infinet ; banks have their own corporate intra - nets which are functioning effectively ; we have the enabling legal infrastructure for large scale it deployment and able all, we have a large customer population which has adapted well to the changes using technology. these do give us comfort, but let these not lead us to complacency. as india has made a place in the it arena, it may not be long before we make our presence felt in an it enabled banking world as well. indian banks have always risen up to challenges and have successfully overcome them. today ’ s success mantra for achieving excellence lies in the optimal use of technology in a manner where the process of change is managed well enough to blend with customer expectations of excellent customer service. this in turn would result in better house keeping and improved bottom lines for the banks and above all in overall systemic efficiency. my best wishes to all of you and may your efforts lead to creation of it based bank models of the morrow. i wish you all fruitful deliberations during the day. thank you.

banking solution ; please leave your cheque requisition slip and come back after two days for the cheque book ’ is sure enough to wreck the entire change process and image building that the bank has ambitiously embarked upon. having given a gist of the need to effectively manage change, let me now outline some of the areas which offer major challenges in the area of large scale technological upgradation. at the top of the pyramid of challenges is the choice of the right technological solution. most often than not, we are guided by vendor presentations and experiences of other organisations in the process of selection and we end up in getting a system which may not necessarily be the best one for the bank concerned. while broad technological contours may be the same, customisation may hold the key to providing the correct system for each individual organisation. i am reminded of the case of a bank which started installing cash dispensing machines a few years ago, based on some experiences of the west. today, we have observed that automated teller machines ( atms ) with multi - functional and regional language capabilities are being construed as the optimal fit for cash based and other related transactions of customers. the next challenge relates to the level of security in the usage of it based systems in banks. much has been said and detailed about the need for fool proof security systems in banks, but we find that security breaches and the consequent perpetuation of frauds are also taking place. security in banking applications is not a feature but a built - in process. the public key infrastructure ( pki ) which is positioned as a very advanced security mechanism may be brought to nought if there is a compromise of the smart cards housing the digital signature, by the holder and he shares the card with an unauthorised person. thus, the entire chain of procedures and components of a system have to be looked at in a holistic manner to ensure that security is all pervasive across the entire chain of activities. another important challenge facing all of us is the need for standardisation. while standardisation does not mean that the same uniform systems are used across all banks, the bare minimum requirements to ensure inter - operability has to be provided for. with margins across different partners in business thinning, it is essential that banks take up straight through processing and interoperability as key issues to be addressed in all their technological implementations. the usage of the sfms of the idrbt, it