Bankers have begun providing various types of services
be sides performing the basic banking functions, i.e., accepting
deposits and lending money. The range of services rendered
by commercial banks in our country can be broadly classified
as traditional services and innovative services. The traditional
services include providing different types of deposit accounts,
grant of advances, collection of cheques/drafts/bills of
exchange, provision for remittance facilities by issue of
drafts/mail transfers, provision for safe deposit lockers,
purchase and sale of securities, etc.
The innovative services
offered by the banks include services such as certificate
of deposit, daily savings, minor savings, monthly income
and retirement schemes, farmers deposit, insurance linked
savings bank, smart money, housing deposit, automatic extension
deposit, personal loan, loan participation schemes, credit
card, travelers cheque, gift cheque, lock box and night
safe service, services after regular banking hours, phone
banking, ATM services and the like. ATM has been playing a vital role in enhancing the service
level of commercial banks. It has simplified the work of
both the banker and the customer, and almost all the banks
are concentrating on providing competitive ATM services
to their customers. Internationally, the first ATM was installed
on June 27, 1974 by Barclays Bank, London.
The invention of ATM by John Shepherd-Baron has helped
the banks provide high quality and timely service to their
customers. The availability of online technology has helped
the banks to further simplify their task of providing efficient
ATM services. Currently, there are about 16 lakh ATMs throughout
the world.
|
