Q. What makes it necessary for the cooperative
banks to opt for digitization? Can you please
throw some light on specific areas in which
digitization is needed? Do you think digitization of
cooperative sector is must for effective financial
inclusion?
Mr. Srinivas : Maintenance of data in different
ledgers for one customer, scale of operations,
posting of some of the entries in ledgers with
backlogs, accurate and timely submission of data
for policy making, sustaining competition among
the banks in the rural areas some of them are
Public Sector Banks and also the New generation
private sector banks are the impediments which
could be addressed only through digitization.
Financial inclusion could be achieved effectively to
its best only on digitization as real time data ow
will be there and also a realtime MIS could be
derived. It will also help the end customer in
getting on to the national network of ATMs and
thus a Cooperative bank operating in a micro
interior with a small set up can afford mobility to
their customers by digitizing their applications and
get hooked on to the national networks be it the
ATM, POS, UPI or Internet based transaction.
Q. In which of these areas Vsoft provides
solutions?
Mr. Srinivas : While VSoft has complete suite of
banking products in the payment space as well as
the core banking side, the scope and coverage of
VSoft is present in the entirety of the requirements
of both commercial and cooperative segments.
More particularly on the Cooperative Credit
structure which is a pyramid with PACS at the
bottom most part, DCCBs at the middle, Apex is
on the top portion with NABARD being above the
pyramid, we have a comprehensive approach
towards providing Core solutions with effective
linkages to each of the above tiers with the other
tiers. Thus, the approach is to provide an
integrated end to end solution. At every stage it
has also been ensured that digital banking
enablements are provided to the fullest extent so
that VSoft becomes one stop shop for the entire
solution suite. However, these applications work
on a stand-alone mode also.
Q. What makes Vsoft distinct from many big
players in the market providing these services?
Mr. Srinivas : Understanding the intricacies
including various compliance and risk mitigation
requirements is the strength of VSoft. We have
officials at senior levels who had hands-on
experience of several decades in both Commercial
and Cooperative segments. Thus, the applications
are always designed with a thorough insight
balancing carefully the operations, compliance,
risk and also cost effectiveness as the number of
vendors that the banks have to deal with
comesdown substantially. Our approach is always
modular so that we can de-construct the
application and ensure that the modules required
are only deployed, where as the same may not be
possible for the other large applications available
in the market. Being a one stop shop and offering
hosted services are also an added advantages
when we deal with Vsoft.
Q. Has absence of a core banking facility
emerged as a deficiency in the transformation of
the cooperative banks towards a digital economy?
What are the reasons for the lag? How these
issues can be overcome by the cooperative sector?
Mr. Srinivas : Absence of a comprehensive
solution linking the various tiers of the
Cooperative segment is the serious deficiency in
the transformation of the cooperative banks in the
digital era. While some of them have solutions
covering few of the requirements, the entire scope
is not covered by any single company so far. The
reason for such gaps in the banks in the
cooperative segment is mainly the awareness for
the products availability, capability to evaluate
such applications if the same are available in the
market The quest for solutions is a continuous
process for any financial institution till they land
on an optimal solution. The banks will have to see
successful models like the state of odisha where
an entire integrated approach has been adopted
by the state and all the institutions in the
cooperative segment in the state are interlinked.
This not only affords wider coverage of the
customer operations as the entire set is treated as
on one core, it would also help in consolidation of
costs for operations for the entire cooperative
segment in the state.
Q. Security is the cause of concern in this Digital
era. How does your company help in coping up
with this threat to security in banks?
Mr. Srinivas : We have thoroughly tested our
applications on all security audits and we have
already been certified by various agencies for
security risks mitigations. Audit and qualitative
improvements is a continuous process in VSoft