On behalf of the Reserve Bank of India, the current Chair of the SEACEN (South East Asian Central Banks) forum, I extend a warm welcome to Governors of central banks and other delegates to this 59th SEACEN Governors’ Conference. The weather in Mumbai during this time of the year is pleasant and I hope you get some time for sightseeing. As everyone in this hall is aware, SEACEN plays a pivotal role in promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing and policy coordination among the member central banks, and thereby contributes significantly to the stability, resilience and sustainable development of the regional and the global economy.

MDs and CEOs of Regulated Entities, Heads of Customer Service, Principal Nodal Officers, Executive Director, Shri Neeraj Nigam, Reserve Bank Ombudsmen, senior colleagues from the Reserve Bank and most importantly the key audience of our conference today, the Internal Ombudsman from Regulated Entities. A very good morning to all of you.

It gives me great pleasure to be here at Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. While the winter outside is cold, the warmth of coming together of eminent leaders and experts from diverse fields more than compensates for it. These meetings assume greater relevance when fundamental changes are taking place in a global scale that would potentially shape our common destiny. I thank the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for giving me this opportunity to speak at this event. Recent information on the global macroeconomic front has been somewhat reassuring with inflation gradually descending closer to the target, even as growth has held up better than expected. The odds of a soft landing have increased and this has enthused the financial markets. Financial conditions have eased, and markets have scaled new highs, raising concerns that they might be running ahead of themselves. At this critical juncture, certain hard facts have to be kept in mind, namely, global growth is slowing down; geopolitical situation continues to be fragile with new flash points and fear of supply chain disruptions; geo-economic fragmentation remains unabated undermining global trade; and the daunting climate related challenges are holding their ground.

Director, CAFRAL, Shri B P Kanungo; Shri N S Vishwanathan former Deputy Governor RBI, Smt. Indrani Banerjee, Additional Director CAFRAL, Shri Diwakar Gupta, Senior Advisor, CAFRAL, distinguished guests from the financial fraternity; and ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to be present here at this very topical Conference on Resolution of Stressed Assets and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code – the Future Road Map. The IBC notified in May 2016 introduced a comprehensive legislation that introduced a paradigm shift in the landscape of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings in India, bringing in a more structured, institutionalised and time-sensitive approach to resolving financial distress.

Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Risk Officers, Heads of Internal Audit, colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India, Ladies, and Gentlemen. A happy New Year and good afternoon to all of you. I am delighted to address you today as we gather for this inaugural conference of Heads of Assurance functions. Last year, in our engagements with the Boards of both Public and Private Sector Banks, Governor had emphasized the importance of independence of assurance functions as well as their right to constructively challenge business functions for establishing a strong compliance and risk culture.  Indeed, this conference today is a testament to the significant importance the Reserve Bank attaches to the assurance functions in the context of safeguarding financial integrity and promoting regulatory compliance.

I am very happy to be here at this Conference on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 organised by the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL). I wish to congratulate CAFRAL for taking this initiative and thank them for inviting me to this event.

I am extremely delighted to be here this morning at the Mint BFSI Summit. I would like to thank the organisers, Mint, for inviting me to this event. Incidentally, I had also participated in a similar event - Mint Annual Banking Conclave - in February 2020.

(Remarks delivered virtually by Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India – December 22, 2023 - at the 106th Annual Conference of Indian Economic Association in Delhi)

Chairman, State Bank of India Shri Dinesh Khara and my fellow colleagues from the banking fraternity, ladies, and gentlemen. 1.A very warm good morning to all of you. I am delighted to be here at the 10th edition of the SBI Banking & Economics Conclave, surrounded by industry leaders from banking and financial sectors, leading economists, policy makers, and other stakeholders. This marquee event provides a platform for discussing pertinent issues, sharing insights, and exploring potential solutions for the industry. In a lighter vein, after being a part of its host institution in its past nine editions, I now have the honour of being invited to speak at this prestigious event! I am extremely grateful to Chairman Shri Khara for extending this invitation. 

Distinguished guests, Good evening. First of all, let me thank the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and FICCI for inviting me over to deliver this address today. It’s a pleasure to be here amidst such a gathering of important stakeholders across the spectrum of our financial landscape. In a very short span of time, FIBAC has achieved a prominent status for being a premier brainstorming event on emerging themes of relevance to the financial world.