Speeches & Media Interactions

1. Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen. A very good evening to all of you. 2. It is a great honour to speak to this august gathering on FEDAI’s Annual Day. Through its tireless efforts in clarifying the complexities of inter-bank foreign exchange business and serving as a crucial voice with regulators, FEDAI has played a pivotal role in shaping the rules of foreign exchange business in India. So, when Mr. Sindhwani, Chief Executive invited me to this event, I knew it was an opportunity I could not miss.

Deputy Governor Swaminathan J, distinguished delegates from International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) and global deposit insurers, board members and officers of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), officers of RBI, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon to all of you. At the outset, I would like to thank IADI and DICGC for inviting me for delivering the valedictory address at the IADI Asia-Pacific Regional Committee International Conference being held in the beautiful city of Jaipur.

1. Distinguished Guests, Deputy Governor Dr Michael D Patra, Deputy Governor Shri M R Rao, Board of Directors of DICGC, colleagues from DICGC and RBI, ladies, and gentlemen. A very good morning to all of you. 2. It is, indeed, an honour to address this distinguished gathering of global deposit insurers. Deposit insurers, as vital pillars of the financial safety-net system, play a crucial role in bolstering public confidence in the banking sector and fostering overall financial stability. My compliments to the organizers of this Conference—the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI), which has excelled as a global standard-setter, the Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC), and the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)—for their exemplary efforts in bringing this event to fruition.

Mr. Alejandro Lopez, President, International Association of Deposit Insurance (IADI), Dr. Eva Hupkes, Secretary General, IADI, Mr. M. Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), distinguished representatives of the IADI and the Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC) Secretariat, chief executive officers (CEOs) and officials of deposit insurance agencies, delegates from central banks, eminent speakers and panellists, invitees representing banks in India, and my colleagues from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), good morning to you all.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, At the outset, let me thank the organisers for inviting me to deliver this address and convey my thoughts at this prestigious event. We, as central bankers, interact with various stakeholders on different occasions and diverse gatherings like this provide us an opportunity to reflect on issues which straddle not just the world of finance but also impinges on wider scheme of things. The idea is to flag issues which have wider ramifications beyond the conventional financial risks. Therefore, while I would dwell upon the Indian financial outlook, I would like to avail of this opportunity also to discuss on the issue of climate change and the role of financial entities in the transition process towards a more sustainable growth.

Ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning, I am happy to be here this morning and engage with you at this forum. Keeping in view the theme of the event, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a few issues around the risk, compliance and internal audit, collectively known as assurance functions, as they help identify and manage risks for sustainable growth of financial entities. From a regulatory and supervisory perspective too, Reserve Bank attaches utmost important to the assurance function and therefore, to ensure that there is alignment between our perspectives and to communicate our expectations, we feel a continuing dialogue on this issue is extremely important.

Shri Ajay Bhushan Prasad Pandey, Chairperson, National Financial Reporting Authority; Shri M R Rao, Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India; Executive Directors from Reserve Bank of India; CA Ranjeet Agarwal, President Institute of Chartered Accountants of India; Auditors and Chief Financial Officers from the Banks and All India Financial Institutions; my colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India; Ladies and Gentlemen. Good morning.

I am delighted to be here today to convey my thoughts on the issue of statutory audit of commercial banks and AIFIs. In many ways, we, as Regulators/ Supervisors and you as Auditors, share a common goal. Auditors play a very crucial role in ensuring the health of the financial system as they assist in maintainance of regulatory oversight by ensuring that the financial statements present a true and fair picture of the affairs of the regulated entity. The statutory auditors play a significant role in maintaining stakeholder confidence in audited financial statements and this is particularly important in the case of banking industry where the entire edifice is built on ‘trust’ and the biggest external stakeholders, i.e., depositors are fragmented and unorganised. Therefore, the Reserve Bank has a strong interest in promoting sound and high quality accounting and disclosure standards for the banking and financial industry as well as in having transparent and comparable financial statements that strengthen market discipline

Mr. V G Sekhar, Principal, CAB, Convenors of SLBCs, my colleagues from RBI, ladies and gentlemen. A very good afternoon to you all.

1. I am delighted to address you all today, the conveners of all our SLBCs. I understand that you all had a very purposeful engagement over these two days, dwelling upon various strategies and approaches that we plan to adopt in achieving our goal of strengthening credit delivery for an inclusive and sustainable growth. Having been once the Convenor for the SLBC in Telangana in my earlier role as a commercial banker, I can first-hand attest to the immense personal satisfaction it gives to make a difference in people’s lives through the SLBC forum. Indeed, over the years SLBCs have emerged as important instruments of change by catalysing synergies among stakeholders. Through the efforts made under the aegis of SLBCs across 

I am delighted to be here to inaugurate the second edition of the global conference on financial resilience organised by the College of Supervisors (CoS) of the Reserve Bank of India. The first edition of the conference was held last year in April and I had participated in the same. Since its establishment in the year 2020, the CoS has made significant contributions to strengthen supervisory capacity of not just the Reserve Bank, but also the supervisors from a few other countries who have participated in the various programmes organised by the college. My compliments to the Team CoS for their dedication in successfully carrying forward the objectives of the organisation.