Customers complain of kinks in core banking at post offices

Transactions to encash deposits and close accounts take a few hours due to connectivity issues

Postal savings customers across the city may soon get to use debit cards like bank customers, as the department plans to open more ATMs in one or two months.

 

In keeping with its mission to include more post offices in the core banking solutions (CBS) network, the postal department plans to extend the system to 457 post offices in the Chennai city region (CCR) in one year.

 

On December 1, Chennai GPO became the 1,000th post office in the country to be networked through CBS. A special cover was also released on the occasion.

 

At present, the network is in place at 73 post offices in the region.

 

But, customers complain some post offices, including those in T. Nagar, Ayanavaram and Park Town, are yet to overcome the hiccups in the system even a year after its launch.

 

Customers said transactions to encash a deposit and close an account took a few hours owing to problems in connectivity. P. Shankar, advisor to the Tamil Nadu Small Saving Agents Association, said the working hours of counters were being extended by one or two hours due to kinks in the software.

 

Members of the All India Postal Employees Union- Group ‘C’, Tamil Nadu Circle, said that though it was a welcome move to convert post offices into postal banks, the number of savings account holders was slowly dwindling. This was due to a delay in carrying out transactions, they claimed.

 

J. Srivenkatesh, circle president of the union, said there was a need for better computer peripherals and increasing network bandwidth to ensure speedier transactions.

 

However, officials said teething problems in implementing the system were being addressed. “Once all the post offices are covered with CBS, customers will be able to enjoy net and mobile banking, and avoid queues for cash withdrawals,” said Mervin Alexander, postmaster general (CCR).

 

“We are providing help to staff members in the newly-networked offices and increasing bandwidth wherever required, as we did in Avadi,” he added.

 

There are over 3.33 crore savings-account holders in the Chennai region.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/