Viswanathan Ekambaram

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of the cost of borrowing, processing time and documentation on the service quality of banking institutions in India that sanction housing loans. A research framework was designed to consider the independent variables influencing service quality by unearthing research gaps in the extant literature on housing loans. All research gaps were transformed into a questionnaire, to which 535 useful responses were received. A five-point Likert scale was used, and a structural equation model was formulated using ADANCO 2.0.1 – all hypotheses were tested with ADANCO. The findings clearly indicate the relevance of the service quality in banking sectors in India. There is a significant relationship between the three independent variables (cost of borrowing, processing time and documentation) and service quality. The outcome of banking service quality is measured through initial personal contact, online banking services, the humanitarian approach, provision of information for services, promise of service delivery and field verification, with all these measures having a very strong impact. This study is restricted to India only, but could be extended to other developing countries in South Asia in the future. This study could also be extended to cover other types of banking loans offered by banking institutions in India. The paper concludes that it is time for banking institutions to take action to sanction housing loans with a view to introducing the instant sanctioning of bank loans that come with real-time access, without resorting to bureaucratic policies and procedures for housing loan customers.