New Delhi: National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) chairman KV Kamath feels that since March 2020 we now have a digital mindset and at all levels coupled with the advancement in technology. “Today, technology is being characterized by 5 Ds: Demographic, Democratic, Dematerialize, Digital and Disruptive,” he added.
Addressing the virtual ‘FIBAC 2021’ on the theme ‘Resilience and Rebound – Preparing for the journey towards a $5 trillion Economy,’ organized by FICCI, jointly with IBA, Kamath said that in the last 1.5 years we saw economic resilience along with the banking resilience. “With the reset in the mindset of the customers, the bank customers are receptive to change. The customer has acquired the quality of agility and nimbleness. Banks have to keep pace to this,” he highlighted.
He further emphasized on the challenge for the banks to survive the disruptions. “Banks can put in far more efficient systems at a fraction of the cost. There are no serious challenges in migrating and we need to migrate at double the pace,” added Kamath. Digital super cycle, he said is something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also highlighted while laying the vision for the next 25 years.
“The pace at which the digital super cycle is happening in India will grow at a much faster pace than one can imagine. Digital super cycle is going to be 20-25 percent of our economy over the next three years and this is in addition to the growth of India around 8-9 percent. Including this, we can see the growth over 12 per cent in India. This is the financial sector we need to create to cater to this kind of growth,” noted Kamath.
Talking on the Indian banking sector, he stressed that we need to create an ecosystem where the banking sector can grow between 15-20 per cent in the next few years. “Growth is going to be robust, and challenges are going to be enormous,” he noted. Speaking on NaBFID, Kamath said that the target set to us by the government in the last budget was Rs 4 lakh crore in the next 3-4 years. “We can deliver on what the government expects us to do and we should be up in business by April 2022,” he added.
Sanjiv Mehta, President, FICCI, said: “What the country needs is the virtuous cycle of growth and for that we need to fire up on all cylinders of growth engine - consumption, investment, and exports. Both availability and access to the capital are critical.” “We need to have a system which collects disparate data to assess the creditworthiness of MSMEs. This will lead to better underwriting and lending models.”
AK Goel, Chairman, IBA, said that with several policy measures and recovery efforts, today Banks have much cleaner balance sheets, are adequately capitalized and in a position to provide resources to all productive and needy sectors. “In bank credit growth, we have seen an uptick in the retail segment and a gradual increase in corporate credit over the last two months,” added Goel. /BI/
