"Central bank governor is aware of the problems faced in banks transactions due to delay in getting PAN numbers from income tax department. He will soon take up the matter with revenue authorities," special secretary (banking) C M Vasudev told newsmen here today.

Admitting the difficulties associated with PAN numbers, Vasudev clarified that they also helped tax authorities to monitor the transactions and banks in identifying their customers.

Earlier speaking at a meet on "relevance of ISO 9000 quality certification for the banking and financial services," he said "financial sector reforms at macro level have given satisfactory results. The focus has now shifted to micro issues like quality services, range of products."

Stressing the need for improving audit practices in the banks he said "though internal andconcurrent audits were carried out in banks, today's system was not sufficiently fool proof."

The quality improvements would certainly make banks competitive, Vasudev said adding certification would help to set well-defined and transparent criterion for decision-making.