BY
Dr.V.V.S.K.PRASAD.,M.Com.,M.B.A.,Ph.D.,
Professor and Head
E-Mail: vskprasad.vempati@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Reforms of the financial sector constitutes the most important component of India’s programme towards economic liberalization. The recent economic liberalization measures have opened the door to foreign competitors to enter into our domestic market. Deregulation in the form of elimination of exchange controls and interest rate ceilings have made the market more competitive. Innovation has become a must for survival.
Many of the providers and users of capital have changed their roles all over the world. Financial intermediaries have come out of their traditional approach and they are ready to assume more credit risks. As a consequence, many innovations have taken place in the global financial sector which have its own impact on the domestic sector also. The emergences of various financial institutions and regulatory bodies have transformed the financial services sector from being a conservative industry to a very dynamic one. In this process this sector is facing a number of challenges.
In this changed context, the financial services industry in India has to play a very positive and dynamic role in the years to come by offering many innovative products to suit the varied requirements of the millions of prospective investors spread throughout the country.
Overview
Reforms of the financial sedctor constitutes the most important component of India’s programme towards economic liberalization. The recent economic liberalization measures have opened the door to foreign competitors to enter into our domestic market. Deregulation in the form of elimination of exchange controls and interest rate ceilings have made the market more competitive. Innovation has become a must for survival.
Many of the providers and users of capital have changed their roles all over the world. Financial intermediaries have come out of their traditional approach and they are ready to assume more credit risks. As a consequence, many innovations have taken place in the global financial sector. Which have its own impact on the domestic sector also. The emergence of various financial institutions and regulatory bodies have transformed the financial services sector from being a conservative industry to a very dynamic one. In this process this sector is facing a number of challenges.
Growth in financial services (comprising banking, insurance, real estate and business services), after dipping to 5.6% in 2003-04 bounced back to 8.7% in 2004-05 and 10.9% in 2005-06. The momentum has been maintained with a growth of 11.1% in 2006-07.
Impressive progress in information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services, both rail and road traffic, and fast addition to existing stock of telephone connections, particularly mobiles, played a key role in such growth.
     Because of Globalization, the financial services industry is in a period of transition. Market shifts, competition, and technological developments are ushering in unprecedented changes in the global financial services industry. Organizations in this highly competitive and increasingly regulated industry will especially need to focus on making themselves more:
Ø     Adept to face increasing transaction volumes, regulation and the integration of previously disparate global markets
Ø     Agile at identifying and managing risk
Ø     Operationally efficient
Ø     Customer – centric
Ø     Optimized in both business & technology
In this scenario, spearheading IT initiatives has become critically important.
Major spending initiative priorities tend to focus on automation to reduce costs and lessen risk, along with using BPO to gain efficiency and allow internal IT organizations to focus on strategic initiatives. Delivery of these capabilities at a high efficiency level but at low costs is one of the major success factors for any financial services business.
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of the present paper is to examine the status of Financial Services Industry in India and to study the challenges before this industry due to globalization
         To enhance their competitive advantage in this changed environment, financial services institutions are increasingly harnessing new technologies to provide superior customer offerings and streamline internal processes. Today’s dynamic marketplace demands that financial services providers emphasize on technologically advanced, feature-rich solutions, that can operate in real-time and with the highest degree of precision and reliability.
Information technology is increasingly being considered as critical to the strategic direction and the day-to-day operation of financial services firms.
Growth in financial services is being bolstered by the opportunities of demography, emerging markets and ever more innovative products and services. Yet, organisations also face the challenges of mounting competition, more complex regulation and ever more exacting customer expectations. Effective growth strategies are therefore likely to cut across all operating processes and functional boundaries. Key priorities include ensuring that the business model takes full account of customers’ needs, tax, financial and regulatory considerations and the organisation’s capacity to change the way it does business. In turn, the objectives and criteria for success need to be clearly measured.
                   A survey of more than 250 financial services executives carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2006, found that respondents believe that existing customers will be their main source of organic growth. Creating operations that can retain and deliver profits from customers through their lifetime will demand a significant investment in data gathering and relationship management and may therefore require a shift in the prevailing cost-income model. This includes a re-think of training, reward and performance management strategies including a move from volume-based incentives to rewards geared to client satisfaction and the profitability of the customer over the lifetime of the relationship. Success will also require timely and insightful metrics on customers’ evolving attitudes and preferences.
The Financial Services & banking industry is changing at a fast pace. These changes are throwing up fresh challenges like managing complex technological divergence in a converging market. Banks strive to constantly offer more to the existing customer base. To achieve this, they emphasize on more targeted technology investments and high-quality service. To remain competitive, financial institutions will have to renew their commitment to investing in new technology strategically — to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and boost revenue-generating initiatives.
Taking full note of these challenges, OFS puts together its banking practice to help financial institutions improve enterprise performance, comply with regulatory mandates, boost operational efficiency, and better serve their customers through OFS’ spectrum of solutions and services derived from proven track record of domain expertise.
The Challenges
Among the key IT challenges facing the Financial Services industry today is:
Preserving investments in old systems while leveraging new technologies to drive down transactions costs, expand and improve customer service
Integrating enterprise wide disparate systems to gain operational efficiencies
Substantially reducing time for deployment of new systems
Reducing IT costs and obtaining better ROIs for new investments in the long-term
               Only a carefully thought out long-term IT strategy backed by execution, implementation and support capability can meet these challenges successfully.
Today’s financial services firms face mounting pressures on all fronts:
Credit markets are creating industry turmoil
Tightening credit guidelines that threaten revenue streams
Growing reporting and risk management obligations like Sarbanes-Oxley, Know Your Customer and Basel II
The difficulties of sustaining growth in overly-saturated markets
Innovative products that address the needs of a diverse client base such as retirees and young emerging and ethnic segments
Growing concerns over customer data security and identity management
Increasing competition not just from traditional competitors, but from other organizations that expand their service offerings
The complexities that arise from mergers and acquisitions and from expanding into the global marketplace
         Whether we are trying to maintain competitive advantage, looking for ways to position our self better for mergers or acquisitions or expanding into the global marketplace, the challenges are as complex as they are varied. And while we deal with these fundamental concerns, we are met with increasing demands from investors, regulators and customers.
The Answers
How do we succeed in this environment? The first step is to ensure that we have the infrastructure and solutions to support our business strategy. With the right systems in place, our organization can more rapidly comply with regulations, operational risk and security issues. We can also open up new product offerings, reduce customer turnover and minimize fixed costs and maximize productivity. In addition, the companies can leverage outsourcing opportunities to reduce overhead, while still enjoying the scalability they need to support future growth or new initiatives.
The process of globalization has paved the way for the entry of innovative and sophisticated financial products into our country. Since the Government is very keen in removing all obstacles that stand in the way of inflow of foreign capital, the potentiabilities for the introduction of innovative international financial products in India are very great.  Moreover, India is likely to enter the full convertibility era soon. Hence, there is every possibility of introduction of more and more innovative and sophisticated financial services in our country.
Realizing all these factors, the Government of India has initiated many steps to reform the financial services industry.
Ø     The Government has already switched over to free pricing of issues from pricing issues by the Controller of capital issues.
Ø     The interest rates have been deregulated
Ø     The private sector has been permitted to participate in banking and mutual funds and the public sector undertakings are being privatized.
Ø     The Finance Act, 1992 has brought into effect large scale amendments in the tax structure of long term capital gains.
Ø     The Finance Act, 1994 has given a further boost by lowering the lock – in period from 3 years to 1 year, in order to get the entitlement as a long – term capital asset.
Ø     The SEBI has liberalized many stringent conditions so as to boost the Financial Services Industry.
In this changed context, the financial services industry in India has to play a very positive and dynamic role in the years to come by offering many innovative products to suit the varied requirements of the millions of prospective investors spread throughout the country.
                                                           *****
Â
Tags: Financial, Globalization, Impact, Indian, Industry, Services