Important Questions for Rastriya Banijya Bank Preparation
What are the Current IT related issues and challenges in banking sector in Nepal? Explain it in details.Also write the solutions of problems or preventive techniques of those issues. And what suggestions do you recommend for the better management of IT in Banking?
It is observed that computer and information technology is so relevant to banks. With number of no doubt, it is observed that without the introduction of computer and information technology to the banking sector, the banking sector will be miles back to where it is today.
1) Interoperability - There is a lack of common technology standards for mobile banking. There are a large number of different mobile phone devices and it is a big challenge for banks to offer mobile banking solution on any type of device.
2) Security - Security of financial transaction, being executed from some remote location and transmission of financial information.
3) Network – The good communication system offered by the vendors at the various locations of the country. Similarly the reliability of the communication system as well as erroneous connectivity even in urban area.
4) Power – One of the major issues is regular power supply at the offices (ISPs, Banks, ATMs)
5) Scalability & Reliability - Another challenge for the CIOs and CTOs of the banks is to scale-up the IT enable services in banking infrastructure to handle exponential growth of the customer base. With IT enable banking, the customer may be sitting in any part of the world (a true anytime, anywhere banking) and hence banks need to ensure that the systems are up and running in a true 24 x 7 fashion. As customers will find electronic banking more and more useful, their expectations from the solution will increase. Banks unable to meet the performance and reliability expectations may lose customer confidence.
6) Cyber-crime – Facing the ‘New Wave’ of criminal - The banking sector is now facing a more serious threat where the perpetrators do not even need to physically enter the branch. The IT systems of the banks are now the focus of determined criminals who can transfer millions of pounds (or indeed any currency) within seconds to different accounts and move money across jurisdictions and borders with a few strokes of a keyboard. The full extent of the threat of cyber-crime is only emerging and is almost certainly going to hit the headlines in the years. With IT systems of the banks under scrutiny for failures and inadequate controls, it is open to question whether the level of security and infrastructure will be sufficiently robust to withstand the challenge of cyber-crime.
7) Effecting cultural change – People think that they are afraid to lose the job while the bank converted to electronic banking instead of brick-and-mortar banking. This cultural change also affect the banking phenomenon in such a way that bankers create issues on the technology, and the IT people at the bank try to convince them that they will not lose their job, but need top be educated on the IT system.
8) More stress testing - One of the conclusions reached after the banking crisis of 2008 is the notion that banks need to have greater capital reserves to avoid being too big to fail. As a consequence banks have undergone stress tests and required to hold ever greater amounts of capital (implementation of BASEL III). This avoids dealing with the more thorny issue of the inter-relationships within the banking community and how one bank can be intrinsically linked to a host of others. The weakest link may yet still be capable of threatening the stability of the world’s banks. However, for the time being the major banks will need to comply with the current and future requirements of capital reserves. Introduction of NFRS (Nepal Financial Reporting Standard) will also a major step for the IT community to standardize their services in Banking IT.
Information Technology banking may be a drive that's ever-changing the landscape of the banking system basically, specially, towards a lot of competitive business. Electronic banking has blurred the boundaries between completely different money establishments, enabled new money merchandise and services, and created existing money services accessible in several packages However, the influences of electronic banking go so much on the far side. The developments in electronic banking, beside alternative money innovations, square measure perpetually transfer new challenges to finance theory and ever-changing people’s understanding of the financial set-up. It is not shocking that within the application of information technology devices for banking, the money establishments have to be compelled to face its issues. Communications over the net square measure insecure and sometimes full. The money establishments would even have to agitate alternative net challenges as well as security, quality of service and a few aberrations in electronic finance.
The adoption of ICT is defined as a collective term for a wide range of software, hardware, telecommunications and information management techniques applications and devices, that are used to create, produce, analyze, process, package, distribute, receive, retrieve, store, and transform information. . Services and Products like “Anywhere Banking”, “Tele-Banking”, “Internet Banking”, “Web Banking”, “E Banking”, “e-commerce”, “e-business”, etc. have become the buzzwords of the day and the Banks are trying to cope with the competition by offering innovative and attractive packaged technology-based services to their customers. ICT has impacted banking operations positively on the activities rendered and boosted the performances of businesses in Nepalese industry.
What is Home Page?What are it's need and importance in banking Industry?
A home page is generally the main page a visitor navigating to a website from a web search engine will see, and it may also serve as a landing page to attract visitors. The home page is used to facilitate navigation to other pages on the site by providing links to prioritized and recent articles and pages, and possibly a search box. For example, a news website may present headlines and first paragraphs of top stories, with links to full articles, in a dynamic web page that reflects the popularity and recentness of stories.] Meanwhile, other websites utilize the homepage to attract users to create an account. Once they are logged in, the homepage may be redirected to their profile page. This may in turn be referred to as the "personal home page".
• For a Web user, the home page is the first Web page that is displayed after starting a Web browser like Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The browser is usually preset so that the home page is the first page of the browser manufacturer. However, you can set it to open to any Web site. For example, you can specify that "http://www.yahoo.com" or "http://whatis.com" be your home page. You can also specify that there be no home page (a blank space will be displayed) in which case you choose the first page from your bookmark list or enter a Web address.
• For a Web site developer, a home page is the first page presented when a user selects a site or presence on the World Wide Web. The usual address for a Web site is the home page address, although you can enter the address (Uniform Resource Locator) of any page and have that page sent to you.
Home pages are most essential tools for the banks. It is actually the most common and freely available when it comes to digital transformation, the financial services industry should be making similar strides in making its services and products accessible to any person, at any time of day, via the most convenient channel for the individual user. Homepage is the first look of the financial institutions for the customer and the other people, that what types of services are available along with the detail information about the financial institutions.
What are the applications of Information Technology in Banking Industry in Nepal?How the applications of MS-Word and Excel programs to support various work environment?
Information technology (IT) is increasingly becoming an invaluable and powerful tool driving development, supporting growth, promoting innovation, and enhancing competitiveness. There are many examples of information-technology applications in the banking sector that have helped build new markets and fuel the economy. For example, automated teller machine (ATM) technology adoption has increased community efficiency, which led to a reduction in costs, improvement of quality, and increase in the added value to customers. However, some of the implementations of information technology in the banking sector in the context of Nepal are often hindered by a number of challenges,including(but not limited to)lack of stability of the legislation, weak financial sector, poor technological infrastructure, and relatively small Internet and computer penetration. There are a number of ways in which information technology is transforming the banking sector to enable development. It enables access to information, loans, and microcredit for poor farmers in rural communities as well as the modern delivery channels for the urban sector. According to the World Bank (2003) report on ICT and the Millennium Development Goals, information technology reduces transaction costs per customer and enables banks to provide small loans and services to a larger number of rural customers. It is important to note that the use of information technology represents a platform for business and socioeconomic development. The speed, direction, and determinants of information technology infrastructure directly influence productivity, cost effectiveness, and competitiveness in industries. Technology has opened up new markets, new products, new services and efficient delivery channels for the banking industry. Online electronics banking, mobile banking and internet banking are just a few examples. Information Technology has also provided banking industry with the wherewithal to deal with the challenges the new economy poses. Information technology has been the cornerstone of recent financial sector reforms aimed at increasing the speed and reliability of financial operations and of initiatives to strengthen the banking sector. The IT revolution has set the stage for unprecedented increase in financial activity across the globe. The progress of technology and the development of world wide networks have significantly reduced the cost of global funds transfer.It is information technology which enables banks in meeting such high expectations of the customers who are more demanding and are also more techno-savvy compared to their counterparts of the yester years. They demand instant, anytime and anywhere banking facilities.IT has been providing solutions to banks to take care of their accounting and back office requirements. This has, however, now given way to large scale usage in services aimed at the customer of the banks. IT also facilitates the introduction of new delivery channels--in the form of Automated Teller Machines, Net Banking, Mobile Banking and the like.Further, IT deployment has assumed such high levels that it is no longer possible for banks to manage their IT implementations on a standalone basis with IT revolution, banks are increasingly interconnecting their computer systems not only across branches in a city but also to other geographic locations with network infrastructure, and setting up local area and wide area networks and connecting them to the Internet. As a result, information systems and networks are now exposed to a growing number.
What are the limitations /weakness/Problems of the IT policy 2067? If problems in there how should you suggest for the solutions of these problems?
Information and Communication Technologies are increasingly at the core of strategies aimed at securing the goals of sustainable development and stimulating economic growth in countries around the world. Among others, these technologies are shaping the way social interaction takes place and public services are delivered in some fundamental ways. It is precisely along these lines that the Government of Nepal has placed a great deal of importance on transformative potential of ICTs and positioning these technologies within the larger context of its far reaching developmental aspirations premised around poverty reduction as an overarching goal. ICTs assume particular significance in the light of fact that efficiency more than ever is now an indicator of competitiveness. As such, nations, private sector entities and people that find the means to become more efficient will advance and prosper. Among others, ICTs hold the potential to help create conditions for better governance, with more transparent and efficient bureaucracies. Similarly, ICTs can help address structural problems in education systems enabling expanded access to education services as well as help bridge quality gaps in education. ICTs can also significantly improve the health sector by enabling expanded outreach to health care services and driving efficiency through the system. In addition to the roles these technologies play in development, the sector also offers tremendous prospects for economic growth and employment creation through enablement of IT-ITeS/BPO based business models. It is within these contexts that the Government of Nepal has accorded high level of policy emphasis for the development ICT sector. Nepal has the opportunity to make a difference by adopting and using ICT as a tool available to reduce the development divide and increase the chances of improving the quality of life of the citizens. Apart from opportunities however, the ever evolving nature of ICTs also offers a host of challenges from policy perspectives. For one, fast paced technological innovations in ICT domain come attendant with far reaching policy implications which traditional policy formulation approaches fail to address properly. As a result, existing policy provisions in Nepal need to be revisited in the light of dynamism that characterizes the sector. This policy is premised around the realization that there is an urgent need to formulate strategic responses to account for technological trends shaping the ICT sector. Formulating policy responses in alignment with the dynamism of the sector becomes all the more important given the need to adequately factor in key strategic imperatives impinging on faster uptake of ICTs in the country, namely issues surrounding cyber security, data protection, privacy and respect for intellectual property rights. Equally important is the need to address the challenges posed by technological convergence especially from regulatory and governance perspectives. Given that telecom connectivity is fast expanding across the country, inching closer to saturation point, the focus should now should also shift on demand side fundamentals that need to be strengthened in order to ensure strategic alignment of resourcefulness offered by ICTs with our growth and development aspirations.
Past Policy endeavours
Nepal has undertaken a number of policy initiatives in the Information and Communication Technology sector over the past several years. National Communication Policy formulated in 1992 in essence paved the way for the liberalization of the telecommunication sector in Nepal followed by the enactment of The Telecommunications Act and Regulations in 1997. This marked an important milestone in the form of a cogent legal and institutional framework for the regulation of the sector. Building upon these initiatives, a new telecommunications policy announced in 2004 laid the crucial groundwork for further intensification of the process of liberalization of the sector through the introduction of technology neutrality and open licensing regime, among others. Similarly, Information Technology Policy (IT Policy) announced in the year 2000 was the first policy initiative aimed at positioning IT as tool for development and growth. The IT Policy has since been revised in 2010. The formulation of draft broadband policy in the year 2014 marks yet another initiative aimed at creating a favorable environment for the growth of ICT sector and through this means, catalyzing the development efforts.
The presence of disparate policy initiatives and institutional arrangements for the development of ICT sector in Nepal however also points towards lack of coherent strategy in line with the technological trends that have been shaping up the sector over the years. Rapid take-up of Internet and mobile wireless communications has been some of the key trends shaping the ICT landscape. These trends have come attendant with policy implications of varied nature. For example, the Internet has truly become mainstream with predominant use of social media, making it relevant for so many people in their daily lives. Security concerns and concerns about privacy, personal safety and intellectual property rights have accompanied such technological changes. In addition, as indicated earlier, the wider take-up and convergence of ICTs also raises new regulatory issues that traditionally would be seen as separate from telecommunications policy and regulation. In such a rapidly evolving field, it is necessary to ensure that policy and regulation adapt to new developments. The existence of a number of institutional arrangements with overlapping mandates and spheres of influence surrounding the ICT sector in Nepal has resulted in project execution difficulties and hampered smooth rollout of ICT projects.Given the current state of telecommunications and information technology sector, Nepal needs to enhance its overall readiness for effectively harnessing these technologies by articulating its policy positions on new technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), new forms of social networking, etc. This policy is formulated basically in response to the felt need for realigning the underpinning substance of existing ICT related policy and regulatory regime with the ramifications of ever intensifying technological innovation. Among others, transformation from circuit-based telecommunication networks to packet-based ones using the Internet protocol (IP) has brought about digital convergence and offered a host of challenges and opportunities from policy perspectives. It has been observed that the lack of a coherent policy position befitting the technological dynamism that has characterized the ICT landscape has offered many challenges for the holistic development of the ICT sector. The current state of policy incongruence has hindered, for example, the growth of IT and IT enabled services sector to the detriment of economic growth prospects that this sector could open up. Similarly, government transformation prospects anchored in potentialities offered by ICTs have not gained traction on account of lack of a coherent policy framework grounded on latest development in the sector. It is precisely along those lines that this policy stresses the need for a well-defined and consistent policy and regulatory framework for addressing converged regime of telecommunications, broadcasting, and ICT.