Context: Recently, the EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) 2.0 Banking Reforms Index on performance of Public Sector Banks (PSB) from March 2018-2020 was released and best performing banks on EASE were felicitated.

• Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs also inaugurated Doorstep Banking Services by PSBs on the occasion.
• In February, 2020, EASE 3.0 (2020-21) for smart, tech-enabled banking was also unveiled.

Doorstep Banking Services by PSBs

• As part of the EASE Reforms, Doorstep Banking Services is envisaged to provide convenience of banking services to the customers at their door step.
• It is provided through the universal touch points of Call Centre, Web Portal or Mobile App.
• Customers can also track their service request through these channels.
• The services shall be rendered by the Doorstep Banking Agents deployed by the selected Service Providers at 100 centres across the country.
• At present only non-financial services viz. Pick up of negotiable instruments (cheque/demand draft/pay order etc.), Pick up new cheque book requisition slip, Pick up of 15G/15H forms, Pick up of IT/GST challan, Issue request for standing instructions, Request for account statement, Delivery of non-personalised cheque book, demand draft, pay order, Delivery of term deposit receipt, acknowledgement, etc., Delivery of TDS / Form 16 certificate issuance, Delivery of pre-paid instrument/gift card  are available to customers.
• Financial services shall be made available from October 2020.
• The services can be availed by customers of Public Sector Banks at nominal charges.
• The services shall benefit all customers, particularly Senior Citizens and Divyangs who would find it at ease to avail these services.

Performance of PSB on EASE 2.0 Index

• PSBs have shown a healthy trajectory in their performance over four quarters since the launch of EASE 2.0 Reforms Agenda.
• The overall score of PSBs increased by 37% between March-2019 and March-2020, with the average EASE index score improving from 49.2 to 67.4 out of 100.

Significant progress is seen across six themes of the Reforms Agenda:

• ‘Responsible Banking’– highest improvement
• ‘Governance and HR’
• ‘PSBs as Udyamimitra for MSMEs’
• ‘Credit off-take’
• PSBs have adopted tech-enabled, smart banking in all areas, setting up retail and MSME Loan Management Systems for reduced loan turnaround time and PSB loans in 59minutes.com and TReDS for digital lending.
• PSBs have instituted real-time visibility to retail and MSME customers on the status of their loans.
• Most branch-based services are now accessible from home and mobile, including in local languages.

EASE Agenda

• A common reform agenda for PSBs, EASE Agenda is aimed at institutionalizing clean and smart banking.
• It was launched in January 2018, and the subsequent edition of the program– EASE 2.0 built on the foundation laid in EASE 1.0 and furthered the progress on reforms.
• Reform Action Points in EASE 2.0 aimed at making the reforms journey irreversible, strengthening processes and systems, and driving outcomes.

EASE Reforms Index

• EASE stands for Enhanced Access and Service Excellence.
• The index is prepared by the Indian Banking Association and Boston Consulting Group.
• The report measures the performance of each PSB on 140 objective metrics across 6 themes.

Six Themes

• Responsible Banking
• Customer Responsiveness
• Credit off-take
• Governance and HR
• PSBs as Udyamimitra for MSMEs
• Deepening Financial Inclusion and Digitalisation.

EASE 2.0 Index Rankings

• Bank of Baroda has been placed at the first spot.
• State Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) got the 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
• Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India &erstwhile Corporation Bank were awarded in the ‘Top Improvers’ category basis EASE 2.0 Index.
• Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Canara Bank were also recognized for outstanding performance in select themes.

Major improvements

• Digital Banking: Nearly 4 crore active customers on mobile and internet banking.
• 50% of financial transactions through digital channels.
• Customer service: Increase in number of call centres and inclusion of 13 regional languages in customer service, enhanced doorstep banking support by 75,000+ Bank Mitras etc.
• Easy loans: Turnaround time for retail loans reduced by from nearly 30 days to nearly 10 days.
• NPAs and Frauds: Gross NPAs reduced from Rs. 8.96 lakh crore in March-2018 to Rs. 6.78 lakh crore in March-2020.
• A sharp decline in fraud occurrence from 0.65% of advances during FY10-FY14 to 0.06% in FY19-20
• Record recovery of Rs. 2.27 lakh crore in FY19-FY20
• Banks have taken steps like instituting data-driven risk assessments and introducing Early Warning Signals (EWS) systems.

EASE 3.0

• A comprehensive agenda for smart, tech-enabled banking has been adopted for FY 2020-21, under which PSBs have initiated eShishu Mudra (app-based lending for instant sanction of working capital up to Rs. 50,000) for straight-through processing of loans to micro-enterprises.
• EASE 3.0 seeks to enhance ease of banking in all customer experiences, using technology viz. Dial-a-loan, Partnerships with FinTechs and E-commerce companies, Credit@click, Tech-enabled agriculture lending, EASE Banking Outlets etc.