Finance Minister unveils 4th edition of Public Sector Bank Reforms Agenda – EASE 4.0

Source: PIB

What is the News?

The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs has unveiled the fourth edition of the Public Sector Bank (PSB) Reforms Agenda ‘EASE 4.0’ for 2021-22.

About EASE:

1. Enhanced Access and Service Excellence(EASE) is a common reform agenda for Public Sector Banks (PSBs). It is aimed at institutionalizing clean lending, better customer service, simplified and enhanced credit and robust governance and HR practices. 

EASE 1.0:

• The EASE 1.0 was aimed at enabling banking from home, effective grievance redressal and responsible banking through monitoring of large-value stressed loans among others.

EASE 2.0:

1. The EASE 2.0 was launched in FY20 to further build on the foundation of EASE 1.0. It focussed on CLEAN and SMART banking.

EASE 3.0:

1. The EASE 3.0 was launched in FY21. It focuses on the transformation of Public Sector Banks(PSBs) into Digital and Data-driven Banks through smart lending, Technology enabled ease of Banking, Credit@click, Dial-a-loan, Prudent Banking among others.

Achievements of EASE 3.0:

1. Public Sector Banks(PSBs) have reported healthy profits in FY21 as compared to losses in FY20. This is the first year when PSBs have reported a profit after five years of losses. 
2. The total gross non-performing assets stood at Rs. 6.16 lakh crore as of March 2021 –  a reduction of Rs. 62,000 crore from March 2020 levels.
3. Nearly 72% of financial transactions happening at PSBs are now happening through digital channels. 
4. PSBs are now offering services across call centres, Internet banking, and Mobile banking in 14 regional languages.

EASE 4.0:

• EASE 4.0 aims to further the agenda of customer-centric digital transformation and deeply embed digital and data into PSBs’ ways of working.  
• Themes: The key themes under EASE 4.0 are:
  1. Smart Lending
  2. New Age 24×7 banking with resilient technology 
  3. Data-Enabled agricultural financing
  4. Collaborative banking for synergistic outcomes.