PSB Alliance, a private company promoted by India’s 12 public sector banks to further government schemes, is looking to launch balance confirmation certificates and an e-auction portal for all public sector banks by the end of current fiscal, the company’s MD and CEO Rajinder Mirakhur told fe.
The MD said that the current process of getting a balance confirmation certificate is lengthy and physical in nature, as it includes customers to first write to the bank to issue a certificate to their auditor, and then the auditor has to separately apply the bank for the same.
“We are automating and digitizing the whole process (balance confirmation certificate) on the block chain technology. So, the customer and auditor will be on our application and everything will move on the application,” he said, adding that the feature will likely be launched by March or April 2024.
The company is also planning to launch an e-auction portal for all PSBs to auction mortgaged properties by January 2024. “We have already identified (the product), work is going to start anytime now. This platform will be used by all PSBs to auction properties which have been mortgaged,” he said.
PSB Alliance offers 15 banking services at present through its door step banking programme. According to Mirakhur, during FY23 PSB Alliance enabled about 600,000 different door step banking transactions through its 100 centres. Majority of services offered via door step banking programme include delivery of financial statements, life certificates, cheque book and term deposit, deposit of challan, cash payments, among others.
The usage of PSB Alliance door step banking services is not just in lower tier cities but across locations, the MD claimed. For example, if a customer has applied for a VISA, they need to have a statement of account which is fully stamped and printed. Further, there are many small businesses who usually want such statements of account.
“Everybody is not that tech savvy. We living in cities feel everybody is tech-savvy. If you walk into a SBI branch, it would be full of people and you cannot step in. Thus, we are saying that can we move people away from branches and tell them that we will deliver all those services to your home,” the MD said.
Further, PSB Alliance on Friday announced that it has appointed Veefin Solutions to build a supply chain finance online platform. The online platform will enable small and medium enterprises (SME) to get financing through public sector banks in the initial stages, and later private banks and non-banking finance companies will also onboard the platform to provide funds to SME. Mirakhur said the platform will soon by piloted in two major PSU banks, which could most likely be State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.
Lastly, when asked whether the MD was open to the idea of private banks getting a stake in the company, the MD said: “Not as of now. But we would want to have that. First we want to establish ourselves in PSB space, and yes it is an industry technology we are building and if it can be used for industry why not.”