New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today (Nov 11, 2004) it was putting in place a 'National Financial Switch' to quicken data collection and make ATMs and banking system more customer friendly and effective.

The switch will enable quick availability of data of bank branches in various parts of the country and help in the processing of financial transactions, the Executive Director of RBI, R B Burman, said at bankers' conference in New Delhi.

"We want to have a national level settlement to make banking more effective and efficient", he said.

The system will also help in checking the processing of loan and other dealings through digitalised form of message and information.

This focus on "data mining" and "data warehouse" will also be in consonance with the stipulations under the new Basel II capital norms that require stringent provisioning, he said.

Burman expressed fears that the ageing workforce in banks would find it difficult to adapt to the increasing computerisation in the banking system.

He, however, said lot of research work had to be done to evaluate the risk while undertaking quick dissemination of data.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman of the board and Chief Mentor of Infosys technologies, Narayana Murthy, said it was essential to computerise the rural branches of the country.

Vernacular voice inputs and internet-banking can be deployed in such banks for the rural people who do not know English, he said.