Faceless banking can be intimidating: Subbarao

Technology cannot substitute brick and mortar branches and absence of the human touch can be intimidating, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao has reminded banks.

Calling for a need to guard against “technology barriers” between banks and customers and asking banks to take care to ensure the poor are not driven away from banking as the technology interface is unfriendly, the governor said banks should train their frontline staff, managers and business correspondents on the human side of banking.

“As we all recognise, technology is a great enable and provides us huge opportunities for making banking more efficient and inclusive. At the same time, it is also faceless, and this absence of a ‘human touch’ can be quite intimidating, if not threatening, to those just entering the banking network,” Subbarao said in Hyderabad on Friday.