As digital services reshape banking, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said lenders should treat technology and operational resilience as core risk-management concerns.
Speaking at Indian Bank’s leadership conference in Chennai on Oct. 23, Swaminathan said resilience deserved attention alongside credit and market risks. The RBI published his address on Nov. 3.
Swaminathan said resilience depends on whether banks can sustain services when an interruption occurs. He also pointed to cyber defenses, data safeguards and scrutiny of outside service providers as parts of bank planning.
The issue, he said, belongs in the running of a bank, not solely in its technology department. Managers and senior executives should factor resilience into business planning.
Digital payment services, artificial intelligence and data analysis have changed how banks operate and what customers expect, he said. Fintech companies and technology platforms also form part of the wider environment in which banks now deliver services.
Swaminathan cited Indian Bank’s turnaround in the early 2000s as a leadership precedent. The address linked resilience planning to the challenges of adapting as banking services and operations become more complex.
At a summit in Mumbai on Oct. 15, Swaminathan had also urged financial institutions to keep controls in step with the growth of digital services. He called on them to protect customer trust and assess how quickly they could detect problems and recover from them.
