Digital banking initiatives of PSBs under merger likely to be delayed

Digital banking initiatives of public sector banks (PSBs), which are in the process of being merged, are likely to be delayed pending integration of core banking platforms.

According to bank officials in the know, though the merging banks operate the same core banking systems (CBS), differences in versions would take around 18 months for complete integration.

“In digital banking, the API (application programming interface) is plugged to the CBS platform for seamless operation since all the customer data is sitting on the platform. When these CBS platforms are going to be merged, there is no point of coming up with a new product before the integration,” said a senior official familiar with the digital banking.