New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday urged public sector banks to ensure branch staff know the local language to deepen customer connect.
She also rued that waning customer connect has led to an extra reliance on credit information companies, who take long to update data that leads to situations of customers being denied loans.
In comments that come after multiple instances of bank officials facing political parties' wrath for not speaking local languages, the minister also pitched for changes in recruitment and human resource policies to ensure that people speaking a local language are recruited and also get appraised better.
"Recruit for making sure that every staff posted at a branch would understand his customer, speak the language locally. At least, if the top management doesn't speak, the branch-level official should speak," Sitharaman said at an SBI event.
"I would strongly push towards performance appraisal on the basis of his or her efficiency in the local language," she added.
Sitharaman said the "only flak" that she is unable to defend is a policy of not posting people of different mother tongues in different areas.
Reminding that a local customer is essential for a bank to carry out its business, Sitharaman said that having the connect with customers is essential even from a growth perspective for the lenders and reminisced how the older private sector banks had established such connect before getting nationalized.
Sitharaman said blending the best of technology inputs with creating a personal touch has been a hallmark of the past.
This lack of personal touch has also led to situations where the bank branch does not know a local customer, Sitharaman said, adding that earlier, a bank official knew who is credit worthy and who is reliable which is not the case now.
Instead, banks rely on external credit information companies, which take a long time to update their records, which leads to loans getting denied as well, she said.
The Union Finance Minister also said that yesterday, she came across two such cases where people also spoke about approaching moneylenders for credit instead of formal finance.
"You (banks) can't be putting the onus on the borrower to go on proving and providing documents till death comes. If these small things are corrected, you will be the most appreciated institutions in the country," Sitharaman told banks.
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