FRAUGHT WITH DANGER

The views of Mr. G C Chaturvedi, Additional secretary, department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, that Public Sector Banks can draw lessons from the private sector on out sourcing is fraught with danger (Business Line 09-10-09). Any out sourcing in banking amounts to sharing of sensitive customer information. In the era of cyber age banking data can be misused by the solution providers (who are not accountable to the banks customers) bringing disreputation and mis-trust to the banks concerned. Banking is about trust and credibility. Public Sector Banks in India are more trustworthy and have better credibility compared to their counter part in the private sector for obvious reasons. His other suggestion of variable pay in public sector banks might be difficult to implement given the basic purpose and characteristics of public sector banking that is social banking as compared to private sector banking whose motto is to maximize the profit without any social responsibility.