Boost your career as a Digital Banker

Prof. Amit Goyal

Due to lack of cash in the country since the time of demonetisation, people started and shifted on digital banking, everyone learned it and promoted it. Digital payments increased significantly during the corona crisis. To prevent the spread of the corona virus, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also issued a notification urging people to use digital banking and online payment facilities as much as possible. Due to which the value of transactions reached its highest level last month on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a platform designed by India's largest banks in 2016. Here's what you need to know to make a career in the digital banking field.

What is a Digital Bank?

Simply put, a digital bank offers the same type of banking services as a traditional bank except that it operates entirely online without any single physical infrastructure, such as a bank branch. So, customers of a digital bank can control their finances entirely from their smart phones and computers. Digital banks are seen as the next frontier in terms of innovation in the financial services sector, which is traditionally dominated by large, well-established banks. These include internet banking, mobile banking, UPI, ATM etc. In digital banking, your bank is always with you and you can avail its services anytime.

Responsibilities of a Digital Banker

A Digital Banker contributes to new customer acquisition through mobile banking registration. They are responsible for delivering set sales targets in mobile banking activation and usage. They participate in product campaigns to ensure that product information is readily available to customers and provide excellent sales customer service. Seek customer feedback on bank products and services. Help in the selling of mobile banking products and services. They do proper documentation and KYC as per the stipulated standards.

Industry Analysis

According to a survey, since the corona virus crisis, three-fourths of Indian consumers have started using more digital payments. 78 per cent of people are expected to continue digital payments over the next five months. The Reserve Bank of India said last year that it aims to increase digital transactions from about 10 per cent to about 15 per cent by 2021. The Indian Government also aims for one billion digital transactions every day as consumers in the world's fastest growing smart phone market i.e. India can transact at the click of a button. Global tech giants like Amazon and Alphabet are betting on India's digital-payment market, which is projected to reach $ 1 trillion by 2023. If we talk about the existing banks or traditional banks like IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank, they too have completely stepped into the digital banking market.

Course and Qualification

To become a digital banker, Class XII pass candidates from commerce field can take up three-year Advanced Diploma in Banking and Finance Course. Those with bachelor's degree in any field, can enroll in one-year Global PG Diploma in Banking and Finance course. In these courses, subjects such as Score Based Lending, e-KYC, Digital Payments, Collaborate office, Virtual Meetings, API Banking, Crypto Currency, Cyber Frauds, AI in finance are taught to prepare students for a role as digital banker.

Since the work of digital banking is related to technology, it is very important to have technical knowledge in skills. Apart from this, communication skills, interpersonal skills, in-depth understanding of sales process, numeric and analytical skills and skills to influence customers are also important.

Job opportunities

As a rapidly evolving area, digital banking offers a broad variety of roles and jobs in banking and finance. Millions of transactions take place online each day, and banks need top notch digital teams to help them in all matters of their digital product development and management. Due to which many commercial banks like SBI, PNB, HDFC, Axis, ICICI, as well as many Fintech companies like Paytm, PhonePe, GooglePay are working in the market which provides services like online banking, digital payment, mobile banking, UPI, digital wallet etc. By completing these courses, the candidate can find a job in any such company or Banks.

Remuneration

The salaries can be very healthy in digital banking work – especially in development and project management roles. The digital banker can earn Rs 25,000 to 30,000 per month in the initial period. At the same time, after the experience in this field, many new opportunities also open up. In which you get promotion on the basis of experience as well as a good increase in salary.

— The writer is Director, TKWs Institute of Banking and Finance