Streamlining Clean And Smart Banking Practices Via EASE (Enhanced Access & Service Excellence) Reforms: An Analytical Study Of Bank Of Baroda

Abstract

The nationalised banks have seen an unsustainable build-up of stress in their loan portfolio during the past ten years. To solve this issue, Government has implemented the 4R's policy, which stands for “Recognising Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) Transparently”, “Resolution and Recovery, Recapitalization and Reforms in financial ecosystem and PSBs. The reforms are building a solid foundation for SMART and CLEAN banking through methodical improvements and the implementation of checks and controls. For implementing the reforms, the Government and PSBs jointly launched the EASE (Enhanced Access & Service Excellence) reforms agenda in January 2018. It is made up of 30 Action Points divided into six categories. “Customer Responsiveness”, “Deepening Financial Inclusion” , “UdyamiMitra for MSMEs”, “Credit Offtake” , “Digitalization” and “Developing Personnel for Brand PSB” are the six themes. EASE 2.0, built on the foundation laid in EASE 1.0, furthered the progress on reforms. EASE 3.0, EASE 4.0 have been successfully implemented. Presently EASE 5.0 is in progress. The EASE Reforms Index is used to meticulously monitor the  progress of banks towards the Reforms Agenda. Bank of Baroda ranked 1 in EASE 2.0 and EASE 4.0 Reforms Index for F.Y 19-20 and F.Y 2021-2022 respectively. This paper would give insights on the EASE Reforms journey in PSBs. EASE Reforms agenda has contributed immensely towards the bank’s journey in reducing operating costs and achieving operational efficiency in all areas of operations. Therefore, this paper examines the effect of EASE reforms on the efficiency of Bank of Baroda. The results showed that the EASE reforms have significant impact on the efficiency of Bank of Baroda and with the increase in EASE index, bank’s efficiency is improved.