The Pandemic Response: R.T.I...

The covid pandemic has made transformation mandatory. We find that the transformation is taking across 3 key dimensions: Restructuring, Technology and Innovation. Banking Frontiers spoke to Chief Operating Officers and Operations Heads of several BFSI organizations to delve deep into R, T and I, and unearthed several interesting insights.

Part 1

Pandemic nudges restructuring

For a sector that rarely sees restructuring, the pandemic has nudged a few changes

Covid has created exigencies that banks and financial services institutions could not just overlook. It required serious consideration and visible action. That means even changing the age-old practices that were ingrained and difficult to change in a normal situation. It required a perception called ‘new normal’ to spur institutions to act fast and act decisively.

HOME – THE NEW WORKPLACE

Sachin Dutta, Chief Operating Officer at Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance, says that one of the major structural changes made by the company was to adapt to operating to the new normal of working from home where teams are not physically present under one roof but operating out of remote locations. “The insurance lifecycle in India traditionally has been a face-to face process set-up, slowly innovating and leveraging on technology in the pre-covid era. However, the widespread impact of the pandemic has led to fast paced reorientation of business strategies with rapid adoption of technology and some structural changes in organizational set-up.