PUNE, India -- MCCIA (Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries & Agriculture) in association with Opine Group, a Pune based Business Intelligence and Analytics firm, recently organized the ‘Intelligent Banking Meet’ – a first of its kind initiative to enable better decision making for Urban Co-operative Banks. The event was attended by over fifty Bankers from several leading co-operative and public sector banks in Maharashtra.
While inaugurating the event,Anant Sardeshmukh, Director General of MCCIA, said “There is a greater need for Banking to understand customer needs and then translate it into innovative products”. Further, he appreciated the formation of a close knit group of Urban Co-operative banks that gives an opportunity to discuss new developments and drive advocacy through the Intelligent Banking Meet. Explaining the background, Anand Kolharkar, Chief Evangelist at Opine Group mentioned that “Empowering the Co-operative banks to step towards better decision making using their own data is the essence of Intelligent Banking”.
Presenting the role of Co-operative banks in Indian Banking sector, Mr. Sachin Kulkarni, Head of Banking and Finance practice at Opine Group, added “while there is a volume growth for co-operative banks, overall, their share in banking has been shrinking. Today, taking 'quality' strategic decisions and that too quickly matters even more.”
Chief Guest, Mr. Vidyadhar Anaskar, Director at Vidya Sahakari Bank Ltd. commended the efforts of Opine Group and emphasized the importance of utilization of IT in improving the decision making. Speaking at the occasion he specifically highlighted the need for solution providers to understand the ground realities in Co-operative banking. “The solution providers must focus on educating the stakeholders, help them to build an opinion about technology and not just push new solutions.” said Mr. Anaskar while raising several pertinent aspects important for solution providers as well as the Bankers.
The event saw a very lively and interactive Panel Discussion on the challenges faced by Urban Co-operative Banks with active participation from the Bankers present at the meet. Mr. Shirish Deshpande, who until recently was a VP at Citibank (New York, USA) as Treasury Controls and Compliance officer, Dr. Anirudha Joshi, University of Pune, Mr. Sachin Kulkarni, practicing CA and Mr. Mayank Shah CEO of Center for Business Intelligence and Analytics, guided the audience on leveraging Information Technology in day-to-day operations, policy and compliance procedures as well as marketing and sales of their banking services.
The event celebrated success stories in Banking Management, Information Technology and identified the Emerging leaders among the Urban Co-operative Banks. The Information Technology Excellence Award in Banking was given to Punjab and Maharashtra Bank and the Banking Management Excellence was awarded to Kallapanna Awade Ichalakaranji Janata Sahakari Bank Ltd. The Pune based Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank Ltd. was recognized as the ‘Emerging Leader’ at the meet.
Going ahead The Intelligent Banking Meet will continue to recognize and reward the best decision making practices in the Co-operative banking sector . The initiative will address challenges faced by all the stakeholders indecision making - the management, technology and functional heads through regular quarterly meets. The continuing activities under the initiative will empower key decision makers, managers and technology support staff in Co-operative banks to leverage on data they already posses to make informed, intelligent decisions.
Contact
Anand Kolharkar
02065326565
