Bank of Maharashtra’s pursuit towards Total Digitization – A remarkably started journey

Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe
MD & CEO 
Bank of Maharashtra

Bank of Maharashtra, one of India’s major Public Sector Bank in the state of Maharashtra has always been at the forefront in technology implementation. With the changing customer profile, traditional customer relationships are getting converted into digital relationships as more and more customers are switching to Alternate Delivery Channels. Bearing this indisputable fact in mind, Bank of Maharashtra has been constantly embracing the state-of-the-art technologies and servicing its customers with the contemporary, competitive and innovative IT products without compromising on security.

The Bank’s rich bouquet of IT products / projects include the following -

•    MahaSecure (the Internet Banking solution with multi-layered and comprehensive security), a next generation secure digital banking app, based on REL-ID, a digital security platform from M/s Uniken). With phishing attacks constituting the major chunk of cyber threat in the contemporary banking arena, it is a noteworthy achievement to be stated that ever since the launch of MahaSecure in the year 2014 not even a single phishing attack has been reported to the Bank.
•    MahaMobile (the Mobile Banking solution), which is one of the best mobile banking apps in terms of features and user experience apart from the conventional features of basic transaction banking,  also offers customer friendly and well appreciated features such as Debit card hot listing, m-Passbook, Bill Pay etc. We are committed for the best customer experience and are improving the features on an ongoing basis.
•    The Bank has recently launched Maha BHIM Aadhaar-pay, a product based on AEPS system (Aadhaar Enabled Payment System). AEPS utilizes the biometrics of a person in order to authenticate and authorize the transaction.  
    Maha BHIM Aadhaar pay enables the merchant to use his/her smartphone along with a biometric finger print scanner attached as a POS machine. Close to about 30000 merchants are on-boarded by the bank.This digital initiative does not require consumer to have any gadget such as mobile phone/smartphone. Also there is no requirement of debit/credit cards.
•    In a support to the less cash economy, we wanted to offer multiple options to the merchants and hence apart from the Aadhaar Pay, we are offering different types of PoS terminals includingPSTN, GPRS, and / Mobile-PoS.
•    The Maha UPI App is now providing very quick option for the customers for transferring the money in real time across the Banks.
•    The Bank introduced more than 100 Bunch Note Acceptors at some strategic locations. With the encouraging response and in order to offer better flexibility to our customers, we are adding 75 new machines with Cash Recycler facility. With this now the customers can use the same machine for deposit of cash and also for withdrawal. The bank has plans to add more number of cash recyclers this year.
•    More than 400 Self Update Passbook Kiosks (SUPPK) have been deployed by the Bank and we are receiving very encouraging response from the customers. The SUPPKs have added customer convenience for two main reasons, first being due to the widened service window and the second being absolutely no manual intervention is required once the passbook is put inside the kiosks. Bank has now plans to increase the coverage by adding more SUPPKs this year.

Future plans

•    Green channel counter, an innovative step towards paperless ‘Green Banking’ for deposit, withdrawal and remittance transactions at branches
•    Innovative Queue Management System that offers smooth service to walk-in customers for enhanced customer experience
•    Banking analytics, or applications of data mining in banking, will help improve how bank segments, targets, acquires and retains customers
•    In order to assure the defined and competitive Turn-around-time for the loans largely for the retail and MSME, the Bank has initiated steps for implementation of Loan Management System

Compliance

•    Cyber Security Operations Centre under captive model with advanced tools such as PIM (Privilege Identity Management), FIM (File Integrity Management) is implemented
•    Implementation of Bank’s own EFT switch with Fraud Risk Management tool for the card transactions
•    Bank also has plans to implement the Fraud Risk Management System that covers all the transaction channels

Global standards & Certifications

•    The Bank has bagged the latest and the most coveted ISO 27001:2013 for its IT wing. This distinction is achieved by very few Public Sector Banks and most sought after by the rest.
•    The Bank’s card environment is PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certified by M/s Panacea Infosec (VISA Qualified Security Assessor). 
•    The Bank has also emerged successful in the VISA PIN Security Auditconducted by M/s Compliance Control, Russia. Bank has complied with all the requirements and observations. VISA Attestation of Compliance (VAOC) was awarded to the Bank.

Notwithstanding the above-mentioned IT products and services, the Bank of Maharashtra keeps exploring and exploiting the technology in its endeavor towards rendering many more such customer-friendly and secured IT products and services. With the entire banking industry aiming towards total digitization, the Bank of Maharashtra is progressing in right track in its pursuit towards the same. Well begun is half done indeed.

Going forward, many more innovative IT products are expected from the Bank of Maharashtra to serve its loyal customers.