He said, to meet ``high intensity'' competition, Indian banking industry has to evolve rapidly into networked institutions. ``Competitive pressures can be met only through globalisation, de-regulation and digitalisaton,'' he said.

Speaking at a one-day seminar on ``Financial Sector: Looking Ahead 2000 AD'' organised jointly by Assocham and Greater Mysore Chamber of Industries (GMCI) in Bangalore on Saturday, he said information on customer and customer groups profiles, product formation and increasing the speed of marketing new products were the critical ``musts'' towards succeeding the new millennium challenges.

Ramamoorthy said the advent of globalisation and digitalisaton has brought in crucial changes in the industry in terms ofintegration of markets, fast-growing customer expectations, change in ownership patterns and consolidation and mergers. He said digitalisation accentuated by communication revolution has transformed the very nature of banking and financial sector. The digitalisation has emerged as a key driver of business by facilitating product and process innovation, enhancing network efficiency and altering the structure of delivery channels, said Rammoorthy.

The technology would also enable cost reduction through centralised back-office processing and cost-effective/ alternative delivery channels, he added.

He said technology would enhance business competitiveness by providing capability to develop, package and re-package products and services thus facilitating speed which was essential to stand present day's competition.

On the fast growing customer expectations, Ramamoorthy said during '60s customers used to be price conscious while '70s and '80s had witnessed price as well as quality conscious customers. However,customers of '90s have emerged as ``Kings'' with more expectations in terms of time, brands, quality and price and the next generation (in 2000) customer was expected to be of more demanding nature in terms of time, content, brand, quality and price, he added.

To meet the current and future requirement, banks have to equip themselves with modern technology to manage quality in the areas of competition, asset management, human resource, earning and capital, Ramamoorthy said. Banks also have a greater task ahead to navigate their way through inflation, he added. Speaking at the occasion, Syndicate Bank chairman and managing director KV Krishnamurthy urged the banks to shift away from the traditional service-oriented approach to profit-oriented approach as the economy of the new millennium would require hard-core banking not just bankers.

Krishnamurthy felt, the commercialisation of infrastructure sector would provide new business opportunities for banking. ``The sector might create some important traitslike high capital cost and low operating cost, lumpy and bulk investments, long gestation periods, long return period, huge upfront cost and steady cash flow,'' he said.

Delivering the key note address Reserve Bank of India regional director PK Biswas called in for an appropriate credit culture and well developed functioning of equity and debt markets with a wide variety of instruments for risk diversification. ``The success of banking during the next millennium will depend on the ability to face new challenges, speedy absorption of technology and strength to withstand pressure on spreads,'' Biswas added.