Public sector lenders are gearing up to walk level headed along with their private peers in offering the most of technology driven benefits.

Gone are the days of conventional branch banking being the sole banking channel for customers. Now is the age of ATMs and other tech savvy modes of banking.

Treading in the league, the largest public sector lenders, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have added quite a generous number of ATMs in the country.

Similar has been the trend followed by IDBI Bank.

"Public sector banks have realized that alternative channels are more efficient (than the branch model)," said P. Pradeep Kumar, deputy managing director, information technology (IT), SBI.

Cost incurred also plays a major role in the decision. "An ATM costs at least Rs.4 lakh but you have to shell out much more if you want to set up a branch," said a senior official of SBI on conditions of anonymity.

"Many public sector banks such as Bank of Baroda are working on improving their channel banking part as this provides speedier transactions and reach at lower cost," quoted Abhishek Kothari. Kothari is an analyst with Way2Wealth Brokers Pvt. Ltd., a brokerage firm.