PREPARING FOR A NEW PARADIGM IN BANKING
Over the years, FIBAC - the annual flagship conference organized by FICCI and IBA, has become the
marquee event for the entire banking and financial sector fraternity in the country. The conference has
truly positioned itself as one of its kind in terms of knowledge dissemination and relationship building.
Faculty and students of School of Commerce - NMIMS Navi Mumbai campus attended the two-day event
which was held at Trident Hotel, Nariman Point, Mumbai. The theme of the event (held on August 19-20,
2019) was "Preparing for a New Paradigm in Banking”, which was very relevant in the current economic
scenario. The event was graced by RBI Governor and industry stalwarts (including CEOS of leading banks
and NBFCs). Other global thought leaders also participated in the conference and highlighted some of the
key emerging issues related to the banking industry.
The opening session on the first day began with the inaugural address by Mr. Shaktikanta Das, Governor,
Reserve Bank of India. The address was followed by a CEO Panel discussion covering the emerging
trends in "Digital, data and analytics”. The essence of the panel discussion was paving a new way of doing
Banking and moving towards Digitalisation and Cashless Economy. Post the panel discussion , there was
a special address on the "Yono Success Story” by Mr. Sonny George, Chief General Manager, Digital
Transformation, State Bank of India (SBI). During the post lunch session, there was a fireside chat on
‘’How value enhancing mergers will transform the landscape of Indian banking’’ which was very
informative. The session discussed the challenges around most recent mergers / amalgamations between
Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank & Dena Bank and IDFC Bank with Capital First. The fireside chat was
followed by a very informative session on ‘’Insolvency and Bankruptcy code’’. Panellists deliberated on
how IBC can live up to the expectations of the market. The participants appreciated the efforts of the IBBI
in reducing the resolution time for referred cases. There was one more fireside chat on ‘’Potential evolution
of Indian payments framework and implication for bank strategy’’ moderated by Mr. H. R. Khan, Former
Deputy Governor, RBI. The panellists included representatives from NPCIL, Payments bank companies
and SWIFT.
On the second day, the event commenced with a special address by Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan, Deputy
Governor, Reserve Bank of India. He spoke on the current regulatory framework in India and India’s
preparedness w.r.t. BASEL norms and recommendations. He also spoke on the need to improve the
resilience of banks and ability of banks’ existing capital framework to absorb losses. He also urged bankers
to look at liquidity risk with due seriousness failing which it may get converted to solvency risk. Next, there
was a session on ‘’Digitization of journeys’’. During this session, there were presentations on a wide range
of banking experiences related to Customer journeys, use of RPA & AI to improve process efficiencies
and improve customer delight.
The event also included sessions on ‘’Building a branch for the future’’ – prospect of branchless banking
was discussed; the element of human touch in the service aspect was also touched upon. There was a
panel discussion on ‘’Cybersecurity and data protection in an increasingly digital world’’. Mr. Brijesh Singh,
IPS and Special IGP (Cyber cell), Govt. of Maharashtra shared valuable insights on importance of
Cybersecurity and steps being taken by his team to improve Cybersecurity. Further, there was another
panel discussion - on NBFCs - where the panellists deliberated on the need to grow responsibly and
collaborate with banks.
Two important themes that emerged from the event were as follows – the fact that technology will define
the business of Banking (more than ever before) in the next 2-3 years; also, harnessing and optimally
using data will be key for designing strategies for survival and growth in the BFSI sector.
