Finance minister Sitharaman to launch EASE 4.0 today: Things to know about it

EASE or Enhanced Access and Service Excellence is part of the government's reforms agenda for Public Sector Banks. Its first edition EASE 1.0 was launched in January 2018.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is in Mumbai, will undertake an annual performance review of public sector banks (PSBs) on Wednesday. This is the first visit by the finance minister since the onset of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and comes at a time when a greater focus is on the government for aiding recovery because high inflation constrains the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is on a two-day visit to Mumbai. (Sanjeev Verma/HT File Photo)

Sitharaman will also launch EASE 4.0 (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) later in the day. EASE is a common reform agenda for Public Sector Banks aimed at institutionalising clean and smart banking.

Here is everything you need to know about it:

• EASE focusses on six themes of customer responsiveness, responsible banking, credit off take, PSBs as Udyami Mitra, deepening financial inclusion and digitalisation, and developing personnel for brand PSB.
• It is part of the reforms agenda devised on the recommendations made at the PSB Manthan held in November, 2017 involving senior management of PSBs and representatives from government.
• The overarching framework for the reforms agenda is "Responsive and Responsible PSBs".
• Its first edition EASE 1.0 was launched in January 2018.
• EASE 3.0 was launched in February last year, which sought to enhance ease of banking in all customer experiences, using technology, alternate data and analytics.