MUMBAI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged banks to ensure that customers are able to get their work done in branches speaking in the local language. She also called upon banks to tweak HR policies to give weightage to local language proficiency during appraisals. She asked banks to restore the human connect in customer service, insisting that technology must complement—not replace—personal interaction.Language friction between PSU bank staff has come to the fore, particularly in Maharashtra and southern India, especially Karnataka. There was recent outrage after a public sector bank manager in Bengaluru refused to speak Kannada with a customer. The incident prompted condemnation from the chief minister, a transfer of the official, and an apology from the bank. Similar cases have exposed ongoing tensions as staff from other states struggle with local languages, causing communication gaps and customer resentment.In a Q&A session with SBI chairman CS Setty at the bank’s 12th Banking and Economic Conclave, she said the sector must rethink its approach to customer engagement, especially at the branch level. “You cannot say you will do everything digitally and reach customers only online. Person-to-person contact was the strength of Indian banks, even before technology, and it helped you make big strides.” A key part of this human touch, she stressed, is language.Calling it “basic etiquette,” Sitharaman said banks must ensure customers can converse in their own tongue at branches. “Language is an important way to communicate with your customers. Even if they know Hindi or English, it gives a nice touch when you speak their language,” she said. “We Indians go abroad and say a few words in French or Spanish to please people—but in our own country, because of HR policies, staff are posted without knowing the local language. That human touch gets lost.”The finance minister linked customer service to HR policy, asking banks to incentivise linguistic and cultural familiarity. “HR policies must ensure that every staff member posted at a branch understands the customer and speaks the local language. Performance appraisal should also factor in proficiency in the local language,” she said.While acknowledging the gains of digitisation, she cautioned banks against becoming impersonal. “Technology can bring advantages, efficiency, productivity, and profit—but that human touch is what many earlier private banks had before they were nationalised. You don’t have to struggle like the old bankers who travelled to villages, but you still need that connection. Please don’t be carried away only by technology.”Sitharaman also called for restoring accountability in credit assessment, especially for small businesses. “Credit rating of a customer—particularly MSMEs—has to be your own. You should not outsource it,” she said. “Earlier, you knew your customers because the staff posted there understood who was reliable and who was not. That has gone, and it needs to be restored.” She urged banks to simplify paperwork and reduce the burden on borrowers. “Paperwork has to be simple. You cannot keep putting the onus on the borrower to keep proving and providing documents endlessly. If you simplify processes, you will be among the most appreciated institutions.”Bankers said that the language issue largely arose because the response to recruitment drives was not uniform across states. While in some states like Gujarat, young candidates were more inclined towards business, youngsters in Karnataka got more opportunities in private IT sector and preferred these jobs which were non-transferrable. In some northern states however the priority was for government jobs leading to differences in language skills.