elements of a strong customer bank relationship is the bank ’ s understanding of customer needs and preferences. however, with the massive increase in their size and their customer base, the banks have slowly drifted away from understanding their customers ’ needs and preferences closely. further, the proliferation of alternate delivery channels has necessitated that banks build their presence across all channels ( omni - channel presence ) to offer their services to their customers. as the banks can ’ t probably dictate that their customers chose specific channel, the challenges for the banks is to design products / systems which are channel / segment agnostic. bis central bankers ’ speeches 32. while retail banking offers phenomenal opportunities for growth, the challenges are equally daunting. the exacting regulatory requirements on the consumer protection front, risks from a slowing global economy and increasing customer expectations mean that banks must innovate to grow. how far the mass retail banking of the future would be able to fulfil its socio - economic objectives would in a large measure depend upon the willingness of the banks to innovate and reform their business processes and structures for this cause. it is in the banks ’ own interest to be alive to the customers ’ interests ; else they might have to face stiff regulatory sanctions. post crisis, several jurisdictions in the developed world have seen public demands for ethical pricing. in this facebook and twitter age, the banks cannot remain oblivious to the power of the social media which wields enough clout to forcibly reform the outliers through negative publicity. only such retail banks, who inculcate ability to churn out innovative and differentiated products by harnessing cutting - edge technology, greatly improve their productivity and efficiency, bring a fair, transparent and nondiscriminatory pricing and demonstrate a commitment towards fair treatment to their customers, would be able to survive and add value to the society. 33. i once again thank ms. thorat and cafral for inviting me to this roundtable and giving me an opportunity to share my perspectives on a very topical subject for the banks as well as the regulators and policy makers. i hope that over the course of next two days as you deliberate on the nuances of retail banking, you would reflect on some of the issues that i have raised in my address today. i wish the roundtable all success. thank you! bis central bankers ’ speeches

so as to keep their product and service offerings relevant and contemporaneous to emerging customer needs. they would have to rummage through huge amount of customer data that gets generated every day in course of transactions and use appropriate analytics to develop products in keeping with changing customer preferences. in this context, banks can also think in terms of giving a dedicated platform of their webpage to the customers to solicit their views / requirements. 28. as competition gradually brings down the spreads and the profitability, the banks have to continuously work towards improving their productivity and efficiency so as to maintain their roe. towards this end, technology would be the key enabler. though, technology has been available and been in use in the banking sector for more than a decade now, my belief is that it has not yet been exploited to its optimum potential. technology can assist in all spheres of banking activities – right from planning, strategy, mis, processing, delivery, monitoring and follow up. i feel that the banks that can quickly conjure up a technology based cost - efficient delivery model for their products and services would be the ultimate winners in the long run. 29. i briefly touched upon the need for developing standardized products and services for furthering the retail banking initiatives. across the globe, retail lending has been a spectacular innovation in the commercial banking sector in recent years. the growth of retail lending, especially, in emerging economies, is attributable to the rapid advances in information technology, the evolving macroeconomic environment, financial market reform, and several micro - level demand and supply side factors. in the context of retail lending, deployment of scoring models would minimize the subjective element and thereby fast track the decision making process. the mass retail banks of today would also have to plan a transit path for the class banking and gradually to entrepreneurial banking. 30. quality of services offered by the banks is going to be another key differentiator. in ultimate analysis, providing better service to the customers would be the key to generating larger revenue for the banks. conclusion 31. the retail banking space proved to be an oasis of relative calm amidst the tumult caused by the financial tsunami that the world continues to grapple with even today. the customer deposit garnered by retail banking represents an extremely important source of stable funding for most banks. in this context, it is essential for the banks to keep pushing the frontiers of innovation and experimentation in the retail banking space to survive and also to remain relevant. one of the most essential