EASE 8.0 Programme: Strengthening India’s Public Sector Banks for a Digital and Resilient Future:

EASE 8.0 Programme: Strengthening India’s Public Sector Banks for a Digital and Resilient Future The Government of India has launched the EASE 8.0 reform programme aimed at transforming Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and making them stronger, more digital, customer-friendly, and capable of supporting economic growth. The programme mainly focuses on four major themes: Risk and Resilience, Innovation, Socio-Economic Impact, and Excellence. The programme has helped PSBs to significantly progress on various parameters, including improvements in customer grievance redressal, asset quality, and operational efficiency.

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The reforms proposed under the said programme are as follows: 1. The program has enabled remediation action tagging and integrating complaints to the bank's Customer Relationship Management Portal, which has resulted in a customer complaints redressal mechanism. 2. Loan management systems now use advanced tools such as bureau analysis, GST integration, and data-based underwriting to improve asset quality. 3. Digital methods to expand current and savings Account outreach has been adopted by public sector banks. Account outreach, while many have established IT Resiliency Operations Centers to strengthen technology infrastructure. 4. Resiliency Operations Centers have been established by eleven public sector banks, with the aim of reinforcing IT governance and the resilience of IT infrastructure. 5. Several PSBs have introduced AI-based solutions, including voice bots, WhatsApp chatbots, and Gen-AI tools to improve efficiency and customer service. There are several other reforms introduced under the EASE 8.0 reform programme.

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Financial performance of PSBs has significantly improved over the years. As reported by the Public Sector Banks (PSBs), all the banks have made an aggregate net profit of Rs 1.78 lakh crore, while in FY2017-18, the banks made a total loss of Rs 85,371 crore. The reforms will be monitored quarterly by the EASE Steering Committee under the Indian Banks’ Association to ensure effective implementation.