New Delhi, Mar 10 (KNN) Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that public sector banks (PSBs) have recorded significant improvements in customer service, asset quality and operational efficiency under the Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) Reform Programme.
Operational and Technology Reforms
Under the reform programme, PSBs have strengthened customer grievance redressal systems by integrating complaint tracking with customer relationship management portals.
Banks have also upgraded loan management systems with tools such as bureau analysis, automated financial statement retrieval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal, Account Aggregator-based bank statement integration, GST data integration and data-driven underwriting models to improve credit quality.
Eleven PSBs have established Resiliency Operations Centres to enhance IT governance and infrastructure resilience, while seven banks have deployed Gen-AI use cases to improve operational efficiency and customer service.
Several banks have also set up centralised business intelligence units to identify market opportunities and strengthen sales outreach.
Inclusive Banking and Digital Services
PSBs have expanded accessibility for Divyangjan and senior citizen customers through initiatives such as Braille-enabled debit and credit cards, regional language interfaces, priority call routing and dedicated service cells.
In written reply to a question in the Upper House, MoS Chaudhary said that banks have strengthened recovery and monitoring systems with AI-driven voice bots, WhatsApp chatbots and mobile collection applications, along with digital platforms for monitoring cases under SARFAESI Act, Debt Recovery Tribunal, and National Company Law Tribunal.
PSBs have also introduced digital banking journeys across retail, agriculture and MSME sectors, along with centralised grievance redressal portals.
EASE 8.0 Reform Agenda
For FY2025–26, the next phase of reforms—EASE 8.0, branded as EASERise—focuses on risk and resilience, innovation, socio-economic impact and operational excellence.
Key initiatives include adoption of Gen-AI and agentic AI technologies, digital lending frameworks for retail, agriculture and MSME loans, improved risk management models, enhanced anti-money laundering checks, and multilingual customer service across digital platforms.
The reform agenda is finalised annually under the guidance of the Indian Banks’ Association, with progress assessed quarterly by the EASE Steering Committee based on defined performance metrics and data submissions from PSBs.
(KNN Bureau)
