RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao announced that over the last decade, transformation of financial segment and the payment systems in India had been noteworthy.

Presenting the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IRDBT) Excellence Awards for 2009 during a function held at Hyderabad, Subbarao stated that brisk and mortar infrastructure had increased the total number of bank divisions, which had multiplied ten fold from 8,000 plus during 1969 when the first set of banking institutions were nationalized to 80,000 plus now.

He added that the banking services would become more reasonable and accessible with the introduction of newer technologies.

Dr. Duvvuri also said that the worldwide slump marked failure in various parts of the financial system but the one section, which remained healthy amidst failure all around, was payment of settlement system, the most technology intensive part of the financial system.

Dr. Rao said harnessing the technology power for making the banking system effectual and for financial inclusion was going to be a big opportunity and a bigger challenge for the banking sector.

The financial inclusion was vital as it was required for generating and sustaining reasonable growth.

''As people have comfortable access to financial services, we all know from personal experience that economic opportunity is strongly intertwined with financial access. Such access is especially powerful for the poor as it provides them opportunities to build savings, make investments and avail credit,'' he pointed out. (With Inputs from Agencies)