EASE Reforms Index for Q1 FY24

INTRODUCTION

The Enhanced Access and Service Excellence ( EASE) reforms in the context of Indian
Banking represent a pivotal step in transforming the nation’s banking sector. Building on
the strong foundation, this year EASE 6.0 will transform the Banks to become more
customer centric and it is concentrated towards four key initiatives for Public Sector
Bank to adopt:

In line with the established cadence of quarterly Index updates, the Index reflecting the
progress made in Q1FY22 has now been developed.

EASE REFORMS INDEX – OVERALL PROGRESS

Due to the simultaneous roll-out of the baseline and Q1 reforms overall
improvement amongst PSBs has been limited with a increase of ~3% in the Index of
the first quarter of FY24 with the average EASE index score changing from 47.2 to
48.8 out of 100 on account of the relative scoring amongst PSBs where some have
shown better performance in Q1 over others.

In terms of the individual themes too,PSBs have shown some progress,barring theme
2 wherein the decline is around 0.6%.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF PROGRESS
In EASE 6.0, Banks are focusing on developing Cost effective digital QMS system which
will enable them to manage customers in high footfall branches.QMS would also give
insights on analytics focussing on customer propensity, with which branches can cross
sell the products to customers, currently 7/12 Banks have deployed QMS in Branches.

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Banks are investing in technologies which are customer friendly, 3/12 banks have 100%
adoption of tablets/laptops in Branches, with the help of which TAT of account opening
has reduced substantially. Banks are putting more efforts in digital adoption by
customers as 66% of transactions in PSBs have been done via digital mode or digitally
assisted mode. On an Avg 11/13 services are offered through Non Home Branches. 9/12
Banks have capability of pre-fill forms for NTB customers. Banks are investing in New
Age features in Mobile App with 5/12 Banks have 8 or more such features out of the list
of 12 identified features. The average product per customer across PSBs is 2.5. An
average 57% calls are resolved via self-service mode for inbound calls received at
customer care.Customer complaint resolution plays a critical role and for this 4/12 Banks
have all 10 features in integrated complaint management tool which will enable in
reducing the TAT in complaint resolution process.To fast-track the deceased claim
settlement 8/12 Banks have developed Digital portal of the Deceased claim settlement
portal. The average Data Quality Index acroess PSB is 97%.

In continuation of EASE 5.0, Banks are putting more effort in digital & analytics driven
business improvement. Now, Banks have developed capability in RAM segment to
disburse loan through STP mode. 9/12 Banks have sanctioned ~Rs 682 Crores in Q1FY24
in ETB MSME segment and 5/12 Banks have developed the capability to give sanctions to
NTB customers. In Agri Segment, 11/12 Banks have sanctioned Rs 2550 Crore to ETB Agri
customers & 3/12 Banks have developed the capability to sanction loans to NTB
customers and in Retail segment 12/12 Banks have sanctioned ~Rs1852 crore to ETB
customers while 4/12 Banks have capability for NTB customers. In continuation of digital
initiatives of banks, 4/12 banks are now issuing BG/LC digitally.Now, Banks are focusing
in providing digital solutions to its supply chain customers with 5/12 Banks have
developed the capability. Banks are now partnering in Agri segment with ~Rs10266 Crore
has been disbursed through through such partnerships.Now, 6/12 PSBs are leverging
account aggregator framework in RAM STP journeys.

Banks’ Analytics & IT capabilities play a critical role in sustainable development and act
as the backbone of the entire Banking sector.In EASE 6.0, we are focusing of organisation
analytics capability with 1/12 Bank has reached the highest level of maturity in
organisation analytics capability. 8/12 Banks have digital dashboard/MIS report of DRT
cases while 2/12 Banks have developed online portal for settlement of OTS claims.
Climate risk accessment is in nascent stage, PSBs are in process of developing and
refining climate risk policies, 6/12 PSBs have disclosed scope 1 and 2 emissions, along
with related risks. 2/12 PSBs have made public disclosures on details regarding climate
risk governance, strategy and management. PSBs required to put more effort of cyber fraud
awareness among customers with an average 0.81 communication sent to customers per
quarter

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On the Developing people and enhancing HR operations theme, Bank need to put more
focus on employee productivity as 7/12 Banks have deployed >60% of measurable, non-
business productivity KRAs.Employee Incentives also play a crucial part of motivating
employees to perform better with 5/12 PSBs have financial reward policies for
employee-incentivization and 10/12 PSBs have special trainings policies as non-financial
rewards. In EASE 6.0, 4/12 PSBs have a digital process of optimal allocation of job family.
5/12 PSBs have a data-driven succession planning process (including competency
assessment) for potential successors. Only 1/12 PSBs undertake a digital tool-based
annual manpower planning exercise at branch-level with generation of employee-
vacancy equilibrium. Banks need to intoduce more women employee friendly policies
and encourage them to take leadership positions in Bank.

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EASE Reforms Index and PSB ranking for Quarter Ending June 2023

Top performing Bank in each Theme