New Delhi: Public sector banks (PSBs) are stepping up efforts to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), strengthen cyber security and modernise banking systems as part of their ongoing reform agenda, according to the EASE₹ise 8.0 Annual Report for FY 2026, released by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) on Wednesday.
The report focuses on strengthening the resilience of public sector banks, improving customer services, adopting new technologies and expanding financial inclusion.
It outlined 16 action points across four themes — Risk and Resilience, Innovation, Socio-economic Impact and Excellence — supported by more than 50 reform initiatives and over 150 key performance indicators.
Under the Risk and Resilience theme, the report highlighted the importance of strengthening banks against financial, operational, technological, cybersecurity and data-related risks. Banks are focusing on AI-led credit underwriting, digitised loan collection and recovery, and integrated operational risk management to improve their ability to identify and manage risks.
The report also highlighted the role of technology in improving cybersecurity and ensuring business continuity. Public sector banks are working on modernising their security systems, improving threat monitoring and strengthening data governance and privacy frameworks.
It also pointed to the development of Resiliency Operations Centres (ROCs) to strengthen banks' ability to respond to disruptions. These centres are being developed around existing security operations, network operations, IT operations and business continuity frameworks.
On technology adoption, the report highlighted efforts by public sector banks to develop artificial intelligence policies and roadmaps, while piloting and deploying generative AI use cases.
Banks are also working on marketing technology-led digital services to provide customers with smoother banking experiences across different channels. The report further highlighted the use of the Account Aggregator framework, under which banks can act as Financial Information Users (FIUs) to access financial information with customer consent.
Business process re-engineering is another area of focus, with banks working to digitise workflows for both customers and employees. The aim is to make banking processes more efficient and improve service delivery.
The report also stressed the importance of inclusive and sustainable banking. Public sector banks are focusing on improving accessibility for persons with disabilities and senior citizens, while developing banking services for young people, women, startups, gig workers, farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
In addition, banks are working to strengthen environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and develop frameworks to assess climate-related risks.
Under the Excellence theme, the report focused on sustainable business growth, cost optimisation, customer experience, talent development, leadership and better management of liquidity and capital.
Banks are also adopting centralised systems to monitor patch compliance and improve the management of technology-related risks. The report highlighted plans to modernise legacy banking systems through containerisation, modularisation and microservices, which can help make technology infrastructure more flexible.
The EASE₹ise programme, coordinated by the IBA and monitored by the Ministry of Finance, provides a framework for reviewing and advancing reforms in public sector banks.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.