Our annual banking event, bank.net is a meeting ground for the banking and financial services industry in the country. The 3^rd bank.net 2001 international exhibition and conference, held at The Oberoi, Mumbai during 18 –19 December 2001, showcased state-of-the-art equipment and innovative IT-driven solutions. KPMG, a global advisory firm, and our Knowledge Partner for the event, made the level and quality of the show impressive.

The infusion of IT and communications in the new avatar of banking has brought in the Ministry of Communications & IT, Govt. of India, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology and VSAT Services Association of India to support this international event.

The exhibition focussed on largely untapped opportunities in the banking sector - including retail banking solutions, data warehousing, e-commerce solutions, WAP enabled financial services, mobile banking technologies, banking automation systems, ATMs, banknote processing machines, currency counting and sorting machines, counterfeit note detectors, document management systems, communication systems etc.

The highlight of the 3^rd bank.net 2001 was the two-day conference that uncovered "The Emerging Face of Indian Banking". The best minds in the banking, finance, insurance and IT sectors were there to debate and discuss issues to chart the course of the industry in the years to come. The conference focussed on critical issues like the metamorphosis of Indian banking, universal banking, bancassurance, CRM, mergers and acquisitions, enterprise risk management and Internet banking.

Delivering the Keynote Address on Metamorphosis of Indian Banking, Mrs. Lalita D. Gupte, Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank Limited said, "Change is a constant factor in the Indian financial sector today. Competition is going to come from non-traditional sectors including the likes of service providers, retailers etc." Commenting on CRM, she said, "Customers increasingly want their products priced according to their risk profile."

Highlighting the relevance of the theme, Gautam Dalal, Chairman & CEO, KPMG said, "The Indian financial services sector is witnessing intense competition and client needs are driving change. Technology is the other key driver of this revolution, enhancing productivity and forging closer customer relationships through newer innovative channels." Another distinguished speaker at this session was Piyush Khaitan, Vice-Chairman, Venture Infotek Global Pvt. Ltd., who spoke at length about the ongoing metamorphosis of Indian banking prompted by the rapid technology changes.

Speaking at the second session of the day titled ‘Universal Banking: One Stop Shop’, Atul Pradhan, MD, KPMG Consulting said, "Universal Banking, in addition to addressing the other issues, would enable banks to mitigate the exposure to specific industry sectors." The other eminent speakers at the session included P.H. Ravikumar, Sr. General Manager, ICICI Limited, Sanat Rao, Head – Business Consultancy Group, Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Geeta Das, Associate Vice President, Financial Research Division, ORG-MARG Research Ltd.

"The concept of a one-stop financial shopping system is emerging in our country. The fitness of a bank will be determined by factors such as international standard payment systems and co-existence of multiple channels for varied market segments," said Prof. S.M. Padwal, Senior Consultant, i-flex solutions, while addressing the session on Channel Convergence at bank.net 2001. The other eminent speakers at the session were Vishnu R Dusad, Managing Director, Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., George White, CEO, iSmart International Limited, P.B. Sreekumar, Vice-President, NetSavvy Solutions Limited, Vijay Yadav, Country Manager - India, CommWorks India and Priti Parekh, Head - Banking Vertical, Satyam Infoway Ltd.

The first day of the bank.net 2001 conference concluded with a session on The Distribution Challenge: Banking on Insurance. The discussion at this session highlighted the fact that banks are rising above their traditional roles of lending and borrowing and are embracing whole new services. One such service is ‘bancassurance’, where India is joining the bandwagon of the likes of France, Greece, UK and USA. The distinguished speakers at this session were Richard Holloway, CEO, Watson Wyatt Insurance Consulting Pvt. Ltd.; Devang Gheewalla, Associate Director, KPMG Consulting Pvt Ltd. and Sanjeev Joshi, Vice President, Apex Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Apart from the IT and administration heads of various banks and financial institutions, the 3^rd bank.net 2001 had an unexpected visitor on the first day in Vepa Kamesam, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, who visited several booths and took interest in the banking products on display.

The second day of the conference commenced with the session titled Merging to e-Merge. Ardeshir Contractor, Managing Director, KPMG India Pvt. Ltd. and Sanjoy Chatterjee, Deputy General Manager, ICICI Ltd. deliberated on mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector in India and abroad. G.H. Visweswara, Senior Vice-President, Datanet Systems Ltd. also spoke on the usage of Smart Cards in the banking sector.

"You can identify your customer, differentiate between customers, interact with customers and customise your products using IT," said Nitin Parmar, Executive Director, KPMG Consulting while addressing the session Banking on CRM. The other speakers at this session were N.M. Sundaram, Country Manager - Solutions & Alliances, Compaq India and Pallab Kumar Deb, Business Development Manager - S & S, Wipro Infotech Ltd.

Risk is inherent in business processes and emanates from actions taken in pursuit of objectives and from changes in the external environment. It has become a critical issue in present times because organisations have started suffering huge losses, often from risks they never should have taken in the first place. This was discussed in the session Enterprise Risk Management by Raju Bhatnagar, Vice President - Business Process Management, eFunds International Ltd; Santosh Desai, Vice-President - eServices Division, Rolta India Ltd; Sanjay Dhawan, Executive Director, KPMG and Ms. Shivangi Nadkarni, GM - Enterprise Business, SafeScrypt Ltd.

Another highlight of the bank.net 2001 conference was the interesting panel discussion on issues related to Internet Banking, chaired by Neeraj B Bhai, Chief Technology Officer, IDBI Bank Ltd. Makarand Padalkar, Head - Product Marketing, i-flex solutions said, "Internet banking can be a very helpful tool. If one wants to transfer funds from one city to another city, one simply has to log on to the Net and carry out the transaction. But in India we have to build on our infrastructure to provide customers round-the-clock service. This trend has already begun in India." The other panelists included Sanjay Dhawan, Executive Director, KPMG; R.P. Singh, President - Technologies, Nucleus Software Exports Ltd; and Dr. C.R. Chakravarthy, Chairman Data Security Chapter, Computer Society of India.

Commenting on the need for events like bank.net 2001, Gautam Dalal, Chairman & CEO, KPMG said, "In view of the domestic and international developments that have been taking place, there is a need for continuous interaction among bankers, solution providers and policy makers."

The impressive turnout of visitors and delegates at the 3^rd bank.net 2001 was a reaffirmation that the banking, insurance and financial services industry can bank on this annual event to keep them up to speed with recent and future technological developments.