With the objective of providing insights into the emerging trends in cyber-attacks and building appropriate systems for prevention, detection and mitigation of cyber risks, CAFRAL had organised a two day Workshop on Emerging trends in Cyber-attacks, Response Management and Digital Forensics on September 28-29, 2017 at The Classroom, Taj Lands’ End Bandra, Mumbai. The program focused on incident response management system to counter the new trends in cyber-attacks. With this theme, the sessions woven around it covered areas such as Cyber Security Implementation in Banks, Customer Protection, Mitigation of Ransomware Attacks, Digital Forensic Readiness, Cyber Insurance , Role of Collaboration , Deception Technology, Predictive SoC, Mobile Security Potential of Blockchain Technology in Cyber Security , Preventive Strategies, Next Generation Cyber Terrorism and Tech Alerts for Data Protection. The participants felt enriched by the all-round coverage and cutting edge inputs from experts in the field.View Document

The focus of the program was on end to end digitisation in banks. Each session was structured with specific targeted learning. A brief background note of the program is placed here before listing the session wise takeaways. The program takes a 360 degree look at the digital developments in commercial banks and the latest initiatives taken by major banks. Speakers were senior bankers involved in execution of the digital initiatives. There was also a session on Agile way of dealing with digital initiatives in banks by Paul McNamara from BCG with exercises. Saurabh Tripathi & Pranay Mehrotra of BCG were the knowledge partners for putting together the program which covered all the trends in digital developments in banks and NBFCs. There were also five Fintechs who discussed their innovative mechanisms of customer interaction, acquisition, credit delivery and monitoring, which can work in synergistic partnership with banks namely, KrpC, Cropin, Flexiloans, Atyati, and Technospire. View Document

IBA Working Group & Guidelines Drafting Committee finalised and delivered National Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Financing to IBA in March 2015. IBA has forwarded it to all banks with an appeal to consider adopting these guidelines at the earliest. Terms of the Committee & Drafting Group were to develop and provide systematic standardised framework of action catering banking sector’s risks, opportunities, and responsibilities around environment, social and economic factors in an integrated manner. The National Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Financing contain eight principles and five pillars of implementation. The eight principles are Ethical governance, Integration of Environmental & Social risk assessment in lending, environmental footprint of operations, Environmentally sound investment and products, Innovative products for social and human development, Stakeholder engagement, Respect for human rights, and Disclosure. The principles, their description and applicability and the broad areas of disclosure are contained in the first Chapter of the Guidelines. Financial Institutions should adopt these principles and implement them in various lines of business as per their strategic priorities with the objective of strengthening the risk management framework of the institution. While the principles of the Guidelines are indivisible and non-hierarchical, an FI is encouraged to develop a plan that phases its progress under each principle against appropriate timelines and indicators. The FI Board should integrate ESG oversight function in an appropriate sub-committee (e.g. Risk Committee) or create a new committee. Ravi Sangvai, Program Director, was nominated by CAFRAL as a Member of the Working Group and was also part of the Guidelines Drafting Committee. View Document

The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning had organised the two-day program for Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) on the Boards of commercial banks and financial institutions from October 23 to 24, 2017 in Mumbai. The objective of the program was to sensitise the NEDs about recent regulatory developments, capital, risk, compliance, business strategy, governance issues, etc.View Document

The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning had organised an international program in association with Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU Stern) in the month of September 2017. The overseas leg of the program was held at NYU Stern campus at New York from September 25 - 29, 2017. This is the first program conducted by CAFRAL in association with NYU Stern. View Document

The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning had organised an international program in association with Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU Stern) in the month of September 2017. The Indian leg of the program was held over two days in Mumbai from September 15-16, 2017. This is the first program conducted by CAFRAL in association with NYU Stern. View Document

Stress Tests are being used for several purposes such as for macroprudential surveillance (by identifying the build-up of systemic risk and vulnerabilities in the financial system); as a crisis management tool (e.g., in the US and the European Union); to assess an individual bank’s health (Supervisory or Microprudential Stress Tests) and as a part of the regulatory capital framework by prescribing the minimum level of capital that a bank must maintain even under stress situations. In addition, banks carry out their own internal stress tests from risk management and strategic perspectives. The Program focused on practical implementation of frameworks for Stress Testing, risk management and capital planning. Experts from abroad and India made presentations in the Program in which senior officers of banks and financial institutions participated.View Document

Banks typically face a number of risks in their operations, including commodity price risk. However, this risk is less recognized and its potential impact less appreciated among bankers. To expose bankers to the various dimensions and issues connected to commodity price risk that they encounter, CAFRAL conducted a workshop on commodity risk management for bankers on 15 December 2016. It was attended by senior officers from risk management and other related departments of commercial banks. A brief summary of the takeaways from the presentations and discussions with expert speakers of the program are listed below.View Document

CAFRAL had organized a two day Program for Non-Executive Directors on the boards of commercial banks from May 29 to 30, 2017 in Goa. The objective of the program was skill building at the level of Board of Directors of commercial banks, so as to enable them to govern the banks more effectively. The program covered issues like Governance, Risk & Compliance, Financial Reporting, Asset Quality Management and Capital.View Document

CAFRAL conducted an International Seminar on Cyber Risk and Mitigation for banks, Regulator and FIs on September 7-8, 2016 at Mumbai. The purpose of holding the seminar was to weigh and analyse various approaches of handling cyber risk for banks and financial institutions creating options for equipping them with mitigation techniques. National and International Experts discussed and demonstrated ways of handling challenges. Key note address by Deputy Governor Shri S S Mundra on “Information Technology & Cyber Risk in Banking Sector–The Emerging Fault lines” set out the canvas to work on for the seminar. Eminent speakers and Experts who spoke in the seminar included Sahir Hidayatullah, CEO, Smokescreen Technologies; Anup Dhingra, Senior Vice President, Financial & Professional Risks (FINPRO), Marsh India; Manish Tiwari, Chief Security Advisor, Microsoft India; K. K. Mookhey , Principal Consultant, Network Intelligence India Pvt. Ltd, Institute of Information Security; David Leach, Regional Information Security Officer, J. P. Morgan, Asia Pacific; Vinayak Godse, Senior Director, Data Security Council of India; Advocate Prashant Mali; R Ravikumar, Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Supervision, RBI; Citi Bank Team of Naresh Shankar, Arun Wable, and Mohit Narula; Erik de Jong, Chief Research Officer, Fox-IT, Netherlands and Nandkumar Sarvade, CEO,IT Subsidiary, RBI. The participant profile consisted of Executive Directors in charge of Cyber Security, CISOs and Heads of Cyber Security of banks. View Document

Financial Markets Program was held between January 25, 2016 to January 29, 2016. Senior IES officers from Ministry of Finance, senior officials & economists from commercial banks participated in the program. The objective of the program was to acquaint and equip the participants with the structure and functions of the financial markets in India with latest local and global developments. Coverage of the program included developments in money, debt and capital market products and exchanges; operative monetary policy and government borrowing program; bond market including masala bonds; forex market and exchange rate mechanism and role of FIMMDA; reserves management policies; mutual funds industry issues; role of CCIL in payment and settlement; capital management by banks and readiness of banks of Basel III implementation and latest Financial Stability Report of Reserve Bank of India.View Document

CAFRAL conducted a Conference on Implementation & Compliance of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Standards as on November 30, 2015 at Mumbai. The scope & content of the program included effective AML risk management best practices, recent AML violation case studies, regulatory expectations, FIU-IND observations on weaknesses in STR/CTR submissions, international AML best practices by AML implementation in-charges of Standard Chartered Bank and JP Morgan, Hong Kong, recent trade finance case studies and Enforcement Directorate analysis of types of AML violations etc. View Document

There is basic asymmetry in the G Sec trading and derivative market participation. Objective of the meeting was to discuss reasons for muted participation of PSBs in G Sec trading and derivatives market (IRS, OIS & IRF) compared to foreign banks and private sector banks. The highlights of the discussions at the roundtable is covered in this takeaway.View Document

Social Media is an opportunity of direct business with your digital customer. It is not just a job that you can pass on your IT or marketing department. You need to plan your strategy, do your ground work, understand your brand, use analytics, pick relevant social media platforms, and take your customer experience and engagement to the next level. The summary will help you understand your customer base, the power of social media and build strategy that will suit your bank.View Document

Financial literacy, when delivered in an effective manner, can act as a huge enabler in bringing as-yet-excluded participants into the folds of formal finance, and can serve as a business model by itself. This paper expounds on how it is required both for consumers, and for the providers of financial services. It also comments on how customer protection is likely to become more complicated with the number of Business Correspondents expected to substantially increase in the near future, and would require a concerted effort on the part of providers, regulators and SROs to be effective. View Document

This paper attempts to summarise the key learnings from Homi Khusrokhan’s immense experience in leadership roles across various organisations. With real-life examples of how he handled various situations that arose during his career, the paper sketches out how leadership goes beyond being just a personal style of managing people, and encompasses processes that can prevent conflicts among various stakeholders and management, and leads to conflict resolutions when they do happen. The paper also reflects upon how succession planning surpasses identification of the ideal successor, and ensures a smooth transition that includes a well-defined role for the unlucky candidates. View Document

A Roundtable to discuss the implementation of recommendation of Report of the Committee on Capacity Building in Banks and non-Banks (Chaired by Shri G Gopalakrishna) was held at CAFRAL on June 18, 2015. The Committee on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks was constituted by the Reserve Bank in this context of recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC 2011) pertaining to capacity building in banks and non-banks and streamlining training intervention.View Document

A Roundtable to discuss the implementation of recommendation of Report of the Committee on Capacity Building in Banks and non-Banks (Chaired by Shri G Gopalakrishna) was held at CAFRAL on June 18, 2015. The Committee on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks was constituted by the Reserve Bank in this context of recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC 2011) pertaining to capacity building in banks and non-banks and streamlining training intervention.View Document

GloboKasNet identified the need for and created a successful network of multi-brand agents to banks and corporates in Peru. This paper discusses the factors that went into making the network a success.View Document

The key learnings derived from a two-day program on Implementation of Advanced Approach (IRB) in Basel II; with an objective to help the bankers to develop IRB credit risk models, give guidance on arriving at probability of default (PD), loss given default (LGD) and EAD numbers on the loan asset of a banker and throw light on assessment of the correlation factor amongst borrowings and borrowers. From regulators point of view, obtaining feedback regarding various valuation methods. View Document

This paper explores some of the domestic and international factors considered by RBI while deciding on the monetary policy and the various monetary policy instruments available to it. It also explores the role banks play in the transmission of these changes to the actual interest rate scenario in the credit markets. View Document

Mobile banking is emerging as a major force across the world, with a much larger proportion of the population having access to mobiles than to bank accounts. While on one hand there are examples of rural communities in East Africa using mobile payments to buy water and solar power, on the other hand mobile based apps provide the opportunity to banks to offer a range of services to their customers round-the-clock in a cost effective way. Similarly, banking through agents is rapidly growing as a critical mode of reaching unbanked areas. The rapid advances in technology and customer behaviour are bringing all of the above options of branchless banking, right at the centre of a bank’s strategy for the future. View Document

In a bank, the common resource - funds or liquidity is shared by all the business units. Therefore the most important function of Funds Transfer Pricing (FTP) is to provide a basis for the exchange of funds between different business units of a bank. FTP is an internal allocation and measurement mechanism for determining the pricing of incremental loans/investments/deposits and for determining the profit contribution of various lending and borrowing units of a bank. It is critical component of the profitability measurement process, as it allocates the major component of profitability in a bank, Net Interest Margin (NIM). It’s a management decision tool and is useful means to identify the areas of strength and weaknesses within the bank. The objective of this paper is to provide to the banks conceptual clarity on Funds Transfer Pricing and how they should approach it.View Document

A universal bank licence in India gives a bank the right to access low cost retail deposits, deposit insurance for small depositors, connect to the payment systems and access to liquidity from the central bank. In return for these privileges, there are certain obligations imposed on the bank in the form of maintaining CRR and SLR and fulfilling priority sector lending. This is the grand bargain and differentiated licence is in a sense de-coupling this package that universal banks get. How should the existing banks and non-bank finance companies be made more vibrant to meet the growing needs of the economy and what and how new varieties of banks be permitted such that the banking sector is inherently resilient in the face of a crisis and also responsive to the growing complexity and requirement of the economy?View Document

Kishore Biyani, Chief Executive Officer of Future Group, has successfully created a niche for Big Bazaar in the crowded area of modern retail. He shares how he achieved this by creating an organisational culture that focuses on understanding the customer, engaging the community and motivating employee base.View Document

Adair Lord Turner shares his views on what are the links between the causes of global financial crisis and the design of international financial system...View Document

The recent global financial crisis has highlighted the potential risk to the global economy from financial contagion. Read the views shared by the policy-makers, academicians, government officials, and the eminent global speakers at the CAFRAL-IPD Conference on ‘Capital Account Management and Macro-Prudential Regulation for Financial Stability and Growth”…View Document

Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, shares that the three critical factors that make a good bank are prudence, simplicity and humility….View Document

ICICI underwent a major transformation under Mr.Kamath's leadership, and during that period produced a large number of leaders, many of whom today head various organisations in the financial sector. He shares how he went about the process of identifying, developing and mentoring leaders.... View Document

Many countries across the world have seen the spread of banking to the mass retail segment through a combination of facilitative regulatory policies and innovation by banks in customising their business models to address the specific needs of this segment. This segment is lucrative enough for a sustainable banking proposition without any subsidies…… View Document

The Board of Directors of a company has the ultimate responsibility for the efficient and smooth running of the organization. Since running an organization entails a huge number of responsibilities, specific powers are delegated to Committees formed for different purposes. One such … View Document

The Board of Directors in any company has people with different expertise, knowledge and priorities. While serving on the Board they need to act as a cohesive whole for the betterment of the institution they are serving, instead on focussing on the groups they represent… View Document

The Reserve Bank of India constituted a Working Group on January 31, 2012 under the Chairmanship of Mr. B. Mahapatra, Executive Director, RBI, to review the existing prudential guidelines on restructuring of advances by banks/financial institutions and suggest revisions taking into account the best international practices and accounting standards. The Working Group had eminent bankers, and members representing the Reserve Bank of India, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), CDR Cell and financial institutions. CAFRAL provided a platform for discussions on the recommendations of the Working Group and the rationale behind them. The various reactions to the recommendations were also discussed and recorded. This document presents the summation of the discussions. View Document

A bank’s core strength comes from its common equity capital. The level of its common equity capital determines the bank’s stability. Capital planning, thus, is extremely important for a bank, as its ability to do business and take risks depends on its capital adequacy. A capital plan helps … View Document

Agriculture sector is the largest employer in the Indian economy with 600 million people engaged in it. This makes India the country with the largest number of people engaged in agriculture. India is also the world’s largest producer of milk in the world. In the last 60 years the food grain … View Document

The sharp increase in non-performing assets in the recent years has brought the focus on NPA management. There is a school of thought that NPA management should be just a part of credit risk management. Hence, it is not just the restructuring or recovery mechanisms that need to be focussed upon. Credit assessment and monitoring are equally, if not more, important… View Document

Housing has been a key driver of economic growth of a country. As per the Eleventh Five- year plan the housing shortage is 36 million dwelling units and to meet this demand an estimated Rs. 7,75,000 crores is required over the next five years. The key challenge is that very little …… View Document