Banks, postal service and other retail savings institutions in India have a
customer base which is unique in the world. The numbers of customers are
mammoth, the numbers of transactions are huge for small values, and the
competition is intense. Also, each customer uses a passbook to get a snap shot
of their financial health and want these updated regularly.
This has put an enormous strain on the Banking and similar financial
institutions and it is not uncommon for a branch to have 2-3 dedicated staff
members whose only job is to print / update passbook transactions for 4-5 hours
on every business day.
Governments in countries like India are keen to deliver banking services to
billions of people who include underprivileged, and illiterate. Many such users
covet their passbook as the only record of their savings. And also for many
government transactions, the Bank passbooks of Individuals are used as a
secondary means of identification. Ability of Banks to cater to such customer
base is in turn hinged to cost-effective solutions and are easy to use and maintain.
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