The Hindu Business Line : Bancon ’07 will focus on global practices

Mainly two factors are driving these changes. One, Indian banks are gearing up to face the post-2009 challenges, when they will be exposed to increased foreign competition.

From April 2009, foreign banks will be allowed to own up to 74 per cent stake in Indian private banks. The foreign banks with large capital, advanced technology, best international practices and skilled personnel are expected to pose competitive challenges to Indian banks.

Two, several Indian banks are expanding overseas as Indian companies are going global and India is attracting more foreign capital. Banks have to match their services to global standards.

But how competitive are Indian banks? Are they prepared to meet the challenges post-2009? Do their practices measure up to best global practices?

Bankers may find answers to these questions at the Bankers’ Conference (BANCON) to be held in Mumbai on November 26-27 with the theme ‘Indian banking: Towards global best practices’.

The conference would be hosted by Bank of Baroda with the organisational support of the Indian Banks Association. For the first time, it will have experts from sectors such as IT, manufacturing and healthcare.

The two-day event will also feature eminent speakers including the RBI Governor, Deputy Governors, and central bankers from countries like Mauritius, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Elaborating on the theme of the conference, Dr A.K. Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Baroda, said that given the rapid transformation in the country’s banking sector, increasing inflows of FDI, and with many global banks setting up offices in India or expanding existing operations to cash in on India’s growth story, it becomes relevant for banks to address these issues efficiently.

The event would cover a wide range of topics, including personal financial services, excellence in retail banking, IT benchmarking survey, overall organisational performance profile, and liquidity management.

“Managing capital and risk assumes special significance in today’s world of progressively complex product portfolios, highly leveraged business models and volatile economic environment characterised by supply-side shocks like high oil prices resulting into inflationary pressures and monetary tightening among others,” said Dr Khandelwal.

Indian banks need to learn the best risk management and capital management practices; complex products for credit and treasury, IT products and customer services practices.

“This year we have tried to make it more a learning event, so we have brought a lot many people from non-banking industries,” he said.

Speakers from non-bank industries would include Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director (human resources) at Infosys; Mr Analjeet Singh, CMD, Max Healthcare; Dr Santrupt Mishra, Director, Corporate HRD of Aditya Birla Group; Mr Arvind Agarwal, Corporate Head, HR, RPG Enterprises; and Mr Deepak Phatak from IIT-Mumbai.

“We want our community to learn from these professionals. The whole idea of the conference is to bring together all the players in the banking sector — customers, regulators and bank officials. The takeaway will be higher from this year’s BANCON,” said Dr Khandelwal.