MUMBAI: At a time when the rift over local languages have been a recurring issue as the central government pushes down Hindi over non-Hindi speakers, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has underscored the need for promoting local languages, at least in the banking space, saying banking in the local lingo can make better connect with customers, which in turn can go a long way in correcting many of the problems that average customers face.
Urging public sector banks to ensure branch staff know the local language where they work she said this can deepen customer connect. She has also rued that waning customer connect has led to an extra reliance on credit information companies, which take long to update data that leads to situations of customers being denied loans.
She also asked banks to restore the human connect in customer service, insisting that technology must complement—not replace—personal interaction. In a Q&A session with SBI chairman CS Setty, the minister said the banks must rethink their approach to customer engagement, especially at the branch level.
“You cannot say you will do everything digitally and reach customers only online. Person-to-person contact was the strength of Indian banks, even before technology, and it helped you make big strides. A key part of this human touch, is language. But this does not happen now as citing your HR policies, your staff are posted without knowing the local language. That human touch gets lost.”
Calling it “basic etiquette,” the FH said that banks must ensure customers can converse in their own tongue at branches. “Language is an important way to communicate with your customers. Even if they know Hindi or English, it gives a nice touch when you speak their language,” she said. Linking customer service to HR policy, she asked banks to incentivise linguistic and cultural familiarity.
“HR policies must ensure that every staff member posted at a branch understands the customer and speaks the local language. Performance appraisal should also factor in proficiency in the local language,” she said. Language friction between public sector bank staff has come to the fore of late, particularly in Maharashtra and in the Southern states, especially Karnataka.
The latest such example was when SBI was forced to issue an apology in May after its branch manager in Surya Nagar, Bengaluru, refused to speak in Kannada insisting that she will speak only in Hindi. 'I will not speak Kannada in Karnataka. Never. This is India and I'll speak only in Hindi,” the manager was heard yelling at a customer in a video that went viral on May 21.
This incident lead to widespread condemnation from the state chief minister, a transfer of the official, and an apology from the bank. Sitharaman also urged banks to ensure that customers are able to get their work done in branches speaking in the local language and to tweak their HR policies to give weightage to local language proficiency during appraisals.
The comments that come after multiple instances of bank officials facing political parties' wrath for not speaking in the local languages, the minister also pitched for changes in recruitment and human resource policies of state-run banks so as to ensure that people speaking a local language are recruited and also get appraised better.
"Make sure that every staff posted at a branch would understand his customer, speak the local language. At least, if the top management doesn't speak, the branch-level official should speak," Sitharaman said at an SBI event in Mumbai on Thursday.
"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" of public sector that she is unable to defend is a policy of not posting people of different mother tongues in different branches. Reminding that a local customer is essential for a bank to carry out its business, Sitharaman said having the right connect with the customer is essential even from a growth perspective for lenders and asked them to look at how the older private sector banks had established such connect before getting nationalised.
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, said Sitharaman who hails from Tamil Nadu, a state that has been and still in the forefront of fighting for local language causes, adding that earlier, a bank official knew who is credit-worthy and who is reliable which is not the case now.
“Instead, today 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 minister also said that yesterday, she came across two such cases where people also spoke about approaching moneylenders for credit instead of formal finance.
"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 said.