Globally, the banking and financial services sector is one of the largest and most prolific users of information systems. This has held true in India too, where banks and financial institutions are one of the largest deployers of IT in the country.
Leading Indian and MNC banking institutions have implemented state-of-the-art technologies for both front and back-end operations. By providing connectivity across countrywide branches, the larger banks have ensured that their customers can enjoy the conveniences of "anytime, anywhere" banking. It is not just the customers who are benefiting by convenience. The banks are also able to effectively maximize the productivity and reduce costs by IT enabling their business.
With the RBI actively encouraging the banks to shift to internet banking and advocating real-time clearing systems, the IT adoption rate in the banking industry is bound to increase. Banks with a smaller footprint are also catching up with the larger players in moving towards connected systems. As technology adoption takes place on a war footing, care should be taken that effective security systems and IT safeguards are in place.
The offshoring of the back end processing transactions of global financial institutions to India has increased the importance of security. Maintaining the integrity, confidentiality and availability of data is a new concern that banks have to contend with.
To address the concerns and issues of the banking community with regard to digital information the IBA, Mumbai Police and NASSCOM conducted a workshop on the theme
Making Money Transactions Safe and Secure on the Internet.
The workshop was addressed by:
V. Leeladhar, Chairman, Indian Banks' Association and CMD, Union Bank of India;
A. N. Roy, Commissioner of Police, Greater Mumbai;
Dr.(Ms.) Pradnya Saravade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Enforcement), Greater Mumbai;
Harish Mehta, Former Chairman, NASSCOM, CMD Onward Technologies Ltd.
and Dy. CMD Onward Novell Software India Pvt Ltd.;
Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch, Sr. General Manager, ICICI Bank Ltd.;
Vijay Mukhi, Chairman, Special Interest Group (Security) NASSCOM;
Venugopal Iyengar, Head e-Security Consulting, Tata Consultancy Services;
Rajeev Wadhwa, COO, Global e-Secure and
Prof. Bernard L. Menezes, Associate Professor, Kanwal Rekhi School of IT, IIT,Mumbai
The event laid the foundation for a committed effort to integrate the efforts of the Banking Fraternity, the Police and the IT Industry to combat Financial Frauds. As more and more money and financial transactions move online, it is natural that crooks and conmen move to cyber space as their new operations base.
The Commissioner of Police expressed his happiness that the Banking Community had responded to enthusiastically to this initiative of the Mumbai Police and NASSCOM. He cautioned however that this was only the beginning of the road and a lot more work has to be done.
V Leeladhar commented that partnerships were the key to making any initiative a success. Security is an all-encompassing field and it would be near impossible for any single body or organization to take it up. He welcomed this partnership between the IBA, Mumbai Police and NASSCOM.
Harish Mehta said that from the IT industry perspective, the customers were demanding security. If the industry were unable to address the concerns of the customers pertaining to security, it could lead to an eroding of the value proposition of the Indian IT Industry.
During the event, Leeladhar and Roy proposed to institutionalise the relationship and have regular brainstorming meetings. This would facilitate a sharing of the best practices that are implemented by banks and IT companies worldwide. The Sampatti Suraksha Setu (S3) seeks to bring the affected stakeholders to a common platform to combat the menace of cyber crime. Research and Position papers detailing the risks and vulnerabilities to financial security would be circulated among the community.
