Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120350280100.htm

Tamil Nadu

EDCC Bank to introduce core banking

Karthik Madhavan

— PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

Erode District Central Cooperative Bank will introduce core banking solution from the next financial year.

ERODE: If all goes well with the Erode District Central Cooperative Bank, it will offer core banking solutions from the next financial year. According to sources in the bank, the management has embarked on a project to network all the 28 branches in the district with one another and also with the head office. “The computers and network will be in place by December 2008. In the three months thereafter, the software will be installed, tested and put to use,” the sources said.

The bank is carrying out the project with funds from the National Cooperative Development Corporation, New Delhi, under the Integrated Cooperative Development Project. “The Corporation has given Rs. 1.5 crore for the project, which also includes training the staff,” the sources said.

At present, only the head office on Bhavani Road is computerised. When the project is completed, the 28 branches will have about 150 computers working on Linux. The apex cooperative bank in Chennai will provide the core banking software, which is also built on open source.

The bank management has proposed to set up a server in each of the branches and connect the branch servers with the one at the head office. The head office service will in turn be connected to the one in Chennai.

Regarding the training, the sources say, the cooperative department has trained five members in the software and 10 in Linux. They add that other 179 staff will be trained in the days to come.

As part of the computerisation operation, the Erode District Central Cooperative Bank will also install automatic teller machines. “The management proposes to set up the first one at the head office. The rest four will be in branches that see heavy transactions,” the sources say. The bank has 1.10 lakh deposit accounts with a deposit of Rs. 545.6 crore, and 6,041 non-farm loan accounts amounting to Rs. 9.98 crore.