CENTRALISED BANKING SOLUTION - AN OVERVIEW

The face of Banking is changing continuously with the dynamics of customer centric banking.
Information Technology is acting as an integrator between demands on the industry and
services rendered. The customer today is more informed and aware. Level of customer
expectations about facilities and services are increasing. Some of focus areas of nowadays
banking are:

Customer Relationship
Value Added Services
Multiplicity of Delivery Channels
MIS & Risk Management
Reduction of Transaction Cost
Variety of Products and Delivery Channels in the market
Centralised Customer Management
Internet Portals to bring the Customer Closer
Increase in Online transactions & e-commerce transactions on real time basis.

Envisaging the needs of banking, our bank decided to go in for the centralized banking solution
(CBS). Among all the nationalized banks, PNB was the first to go in for the centralized banking
solution (Finacle). It started the era of Anywhere, Anytime banking convenience for the
customers. With the help of this Finacle platform, we have been able to offer multifold facilities
to our customers like Anywhere Banking, Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, ATM, KIOSK
Banking, RTGS, NEFT, IMPS, TAB Banking etc. and many more emerging new payment
channels are being implemented.
CENTRALIZED BANKING SOLUTION ?
Under the Centralized Banking Solution the data of all the branches is centralised at one place
i.e. at Data Centre. This effectively means that all operations at the connected branches takes
place through Servers maintained at Data Centre and Branches do not have any data storage
devices. Branches are provided only Windows Based PCs or thin clients (terminals without a
hard disk) which are capable of running Internet Explorer. Other Delivery Channels like ATMs
etc. are also connected to Data Centre through ATM Switch.
In CBS, the branches are now called the SOL (service outlets) because each sol is working as
a service window just like a railway reservation counters where one can book a ticket even if a
single window is open. Similarly customers can transact even if a single sol is open. There were
7003 sols in CBS as on 31.03.2016.
From customers perspective, customer is a now a customer of the bank and not of a particular
branch. This has facilitated Any-where, Anytime Banking convenience for the customer.
From Banks perspective, centralized control over the application and processes has been
ensured like change of parameters, service charges, rate of interest etc which is being done by
Data Centre only. It has made possible the availability of effective MIS on real-time basis.
Further, all periodical returns can be generated centrally.
Bank has already set up a state of the art DATA CENTER having world class infrastructure at
new Delhi and a DRS (Disaster Recovery Site) having the same set up as at Data Center .Our
DRS is capable of running the branches in case of any eventuality at data center. Recently,
ZERO DATA LOSS site has been installed at B.C.Palace, ND for concurrent data storage &
updation.

FEATURES OF CBS - FINACLE

Finacle, a system developed by M/s Infosys, is an integrated, on-line, enterprise

banking system designed to provide the e-platform to banks operating in India &
abroad.
It is functionally rich and addresses the retail and corporate banking requirements.
Finacle is open architecture which allows easy integration with other business
applications and multiple delivery channels
High level of security control and audit capabilities
Designed for optimum Usage of Network Bandwidth
Provides a browser based GUI interface to Finacle
Finacle is a multilingual / multicurrency/ highly parameterized software.
User access has been restricted with a specific user id and a password to a particular
SOL.
Transaction security has been integrated in the form of maker and checker concept.
Same user is not allowed to enter/post/verify the transaction.
There is a provision to capture and display the signatures online.
Finacle has a common transaction interface for all type of transactions.
Voucher printing can be done in Finacle.
Predefined templates have been provided for transactions.
All the limits of a customer can be monitored and controlled through the Limit Nodes.
There is a concept of customer ID. Every customer must have a Cust id before his
account can be opened. Using same Cust id any number of accounts can be opened
by a customer in any of the SOLS.
Balances are RESERVED by the system as soon as cheques /bills are lodged in the
system.
Movement of security forms (Inventory) has to be properly recorded in Finacle
whenever the inventory is received by the branch from stationery deptt or is issued to
the customer.
All errors are handled with specific Exception codes.
Branches to start operations after Data Centre BOD Operations Data Centre to initiate
EOD operations, only after all connected branches have done their Day End.
There are two Functional Modules
(a). Retail and Corporate Module - encompassing Saving Accounts, Current
Accounts, Term Deposits, Cash Credit Accounts, Overdraft Accounts, Term Loans,
Demand Loans.
(b). Trade Finance Module - encompassing Inland & Foreign Bills, Forward Contracts,
Inland & Foreign Documentary Credits, Inland & Foreign Bank Guarantees, Inland &
Foreign Remittances and Pre-shipment Credits.

Beyond the basic application, the package has been fully customized and parameterized as
per Bank Guidelines, by our own core team, trained by Infosys. Future maintenance of
application and parameters is being done by data center, thereby reducing Banks dependence
on vendors. Wherever required, change in Banks systems & procedures are being approved
by a Business Reengineering committee constituted at Top Management level.
ADVANTAGES
Anywhere, Anytime Banking
Customers having 24X7X365 access
Platform for diversifying the business
Optimum utilization of human resources
MIS, Data Warehousing and Data Mining
Secured Control
Connectivity to Alternate delivery channels like ATM, Telebanking, Remote Access and
gateway to Internet Banking,SMS Alerts,Mobile banking etc..

Customer Relationship Management.

Call center established by the bank .Service available on toll free number 1800-1802222. 1800-103-2222 and STD number 0120-2490000 and email complaint@pnb.co.in
and care@pnb.co.in
Bank has decided to increase the number of back offices and centralize operations like
Inward /outward clearing, issue of cheque books, statement of accounts, generation of
MIS , opening of accounts etc.
After migration of the entire cheque volume from MICR system to Cheque Truncation
system (CTS), the traditional MICR-based cheque processing has been discontinued
across the country. The CTS System is implemented across 3 Grids namely, Northern,
Southern & Western.

The bank has implemented SERVICE PLUS SERVICE DESK (SPSD) tool also called help
desk tool and all sols are required to lodge their queries/problems in the help desk tool only .As
soon as any call is loged in this tool it generates a request id and the call is raised to the
respective circle office IT help desk team.The Circle Help Desk team provides the resolution by
loging the solution in the same call id which can be viewed by the user at branch online at the
same time or at any time in future by mentioning the call id/request id.
There is a central help desk functioning at DATA CENTER also which takes care of all the
issues which remain unresolved at circle office help desk. Phone numbers of the central help
desk are -011-23323680 and 011-23323703.
Issues which remain unresolved at central help desk are escalated to the testing and
development section in data center and then to the vendor M/s INFOSYS.
HARDWARE
Hardware installed at Data Centre and DRS for CBS, IBS & other systems are connected to each
other in clustered environment and each server has a specific function. Various types of servers
installed are as under:
- Database Server
- Application Servers
- Web Servers
- Bancs Connect (BC)
- Central Stand in Server (CSIS)
- MIS Server
- Central Training Server
- Test Server
- EMS servers
- ATM Switch
OPERATING SYSTEM
Operating system being used at PNB is SUN SOLARIS version 10.0.
RDBMS (Relational Database Management System)
Oracle 11g is the RDBMS being used.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software being used is FINACLE version 7.0.25 developed by M/S:Infosys
Technologies , Banglore.

CONNECTIVITY
The following modes of connectivity have been deployed by the DC.
-

LEASED LINE connectivity

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) or Dial up connection
WIRELESS or Radio Link
V-SAT (very small aperture terminal) or satellite link

To bring down the cost of Leased Lines bank has set up Circle office NETWORK
CENTERS (CNCs) at all the circle offices and network centers (NCs) at other centres
which have more than 10-15 branches. These CNCs and NCs are linked to DC as well
as DRS by leased lines as well as ISDN. To manage such a huge network of more than
7000 sols, the bank has set up a NOC (Network Operation Center) at Data Center and
the job of network management has been outsourced to M/s:HCL Comnet to work as
banks Network Integrators.