One of the most anticipated events of the year — the FE Modern BFSI Summit — kicks off in Mumbai on Friday with India’s ace financial sector regulators and A-listers from the industry brainstorming on the country’s future growth trajectory and maintaining financial stability, just four days ahead of the Union Budget to be presented next Tuesday.
The highlight of the day-long annual event at the President hotel at Cuffe Parade in South Mumbai will be the inaugural address by Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das whose comments will be closely followed by all the stakeholders on India’s economy and business. After all, when the governor speaks on what could unfold tomorrow, everybody listens.A ballroom full of the leading lights of the financial sector and industry will also get a first-hand feel of the width and depth of the changes that could transform the Indian insurance industry, with a special address by Debasish Panda, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) on the theme ‘Insurance for all by 2047’.
Lending weight to the summit, currently in its third edition, are some of the biggest names from the Indian private sector. Ajay Piramal, chairman, Piramal Group, will address the gathering on the opportunities and challenges in a sector synonymous with constant change.To many who see India as a global North in digitisation of financial transactions, there will be much to learn on the road ahead from Dilip Asbe, the chief executive officer of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), known more for its UPI (Unified Payments Interface). It is arguably India’s answer to achieving financial inclusion at scale. The UPI has already showcased to the world how India can leapfrog the rich world on digitisation.
No apex gathering in the BFSI sector can be complete without leading bankers sharing their perspective on the depth of measures taken, speed of change and the distance travelled. Sharing their thoughts on what could define the journey ahead will be State Bank of India chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, HDFC Bank non-executive director Keki Mistry, Standard Chartered Bank India CEO Zarin Daruwala and IDFC First Bank MD & CEO V Vaidyanathan.
A crucial aspect of the BFSI space is the emergence of fintech and the innovations that have been unleashed even as many are trying to come to grips with the new dynamics of the space. The panelists for this session, to be moderated by Alpesh Shah, MD & senior partner, BCG, include Rajesh Bansal, CEO, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, Sabyasachi Goswami, CEO, Perfios, Shashank Kumar, managing director and co-founder, Razorpay, and Anuradha Ramachandran, managing partner, TVS Capital.
The summit will also focus on wealth and asset management and the emerging trends that will shape the decade ahead. This will have insights from Soumya Rajan, founder & CEO, Waterfield Advisors, Manish Kejriwal, founder & managing partner, Kedaara Capital Advisors, Navneet Munot, MD & CEO, HDFC Asset Management Company, and Kunal Shroff, managing partner, ChrysCapital apart from L Viswanathan, senior partner at Cyril AmarchandMangaldas.
Integral to the changes unfolding in the BFSI space is the role of technology. Sharing their thoughts would be veterans who have spent years leading digitisation efforts. The speakers in this session include Nitin Chugh, deputy managing director and head of digital banking at SBI, Bijith Bhaskar, partner, Premji Invest, and Baskar Babu Ramachandran, co-founder & CEO, Suryoday Small Finance Bank.A session on insurance is obviously inescapable in a summit of this kind. Leading names in the industry such as Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz, Ravi Vishwanath, CEO, Narayana One Health and director, Narayana Health Insurance, among others, will share their deep insights.
The summit will conclude with a valedictory address by Sundararaman Ramamurthy, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).The day-long summit will also pack in conversations with Sonali Jindal, co-founder & COO, KISSHT & RING apart from RING’s founder and executive director, Krishnan Vishwanathan. This apart, there will bea fireside chat with Sanjay Bhutani, joint president and chief business officer at AdaniConneX. The summit is being put together with support partners: AdaniConneX, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, Cyril AmarchandMangaldas, PayWithRing and STTelemedia Global Data Centres.