The Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2023 is coming as a physical event for a second straight year: The two-day summit will be held in Mumbai’s Jio World Centre, Bandra-Kurla Complex, on October 30 and 31.
The country’s biggest BFSI summit will host some of the most prominent names of the financial sector — from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) Chairman Debasish Panda, International Financial Services Centres Authority (Ifsca) Chairman K Rajaraman, Securities and Exchange Board of India Wholetime Member Ananth Narayan, State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Khara, and veteran banker K V Kamath, who is also the chairman of Jio Financial Services and National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (Nabfid).
In a fireside chat, RBI Governor Das, who will soon complete his fifth year in office, could elaborate on the central bank’s constant vigil on inflation, and the importance of aligning the headline number to the target. The six-member monetary policy committee of the RBI has raised the repo rate by a cumulative 250 basis points between May 2002 and February 2023 to 6.5 per cent. Rate hikes have been paused for four consecutive monetary policy reviews now, and withdrawal of accommodation stance has been maintained to signal a resolve to fight inflation.
The retail inflation rate has been projected at 5.4 per cent for 2023-24, and 5.2 per cent for the first quarter of 2024-25 – this virtually rules out any possibility of a rate cut anytime soon if the actuals follow the projection.
While inflation has sporadically breached the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent, the silver lining is that economic growth has been holding up. In fact, India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world at present. High-frequency indicators show a broad-based momentum gain in August and September. And this momentum is expected to continue in the October-November festival season, too. The RBI has projected 6.5 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the current financial year.
The Indian rupee has shown remarkable resilience this year so far, despite a strengthening of the dollar index, and hardening of US bond yields to a 16-year high of 5 per cent. The central bank, armed with around $600 billion of foreign exchange reserves, was able to curtail the volatility in the foreign exchange market. All this, even as the major world economies are seeing some slowdown amid uncertainties due to geopolitical tensions — first in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and then Israel-Hamas war.
Debasish Panda, who took charge as the Irdai chairman in March 2022,could highlight the importance of increasing insurance penetration in the country.
India’s overall insurance penetration rose from 2.71 per cent in 2001-02 to just 4.20 per cent as of 2021-22 — even after 20 years of opening up of the sector. Life insurance penetration increased from 2.15 per cent to 3.20 per cent during this period, and non-life insurance penetration moved up by just 44 basis points to 1 per cent. This compares poorly to the 11.4 per cent for developed countries like the US and Canada, and 8 per cent for Europe, West Asia, and Africa. The world average for insurance penetration is 7 per cent.
Panda has unshackled several regulatory hurdles with the objective of promoting growth and deepening penetration. Under him, Irdai has set the ambitious target that every citizen should have appropriate life, health and property insurance cover by 2047.
Dinesh Khara, the chairman of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, could highlight how public-sector banks have improved their financial health with increased profitability and lower non-performing assets, and strengthened capital position over the past few years.
The two-day event will also see fireside chats with Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies; and Sameer Nigam, founder & chief executive of PhonePe; and a special session with market experts.
A panel discussion comprising chief executive officers (CEOs) of public-sector banks will discuss how the good times could be sustained while staying vigilant against any risk build-up.
The private and foreign bank CEOs’ panel would emphasise the need to embrace technology amid increased competition from fintech players.
A panel of leading economists will discuss policy prescriptions for more inclusive growth amid commentary of a K-shaped recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic.
There will be two panel discussions around the growing mutual fund (MF) industry — the first with MF CEOs and the other with chief investment officers (CIOs). The latter panel will deliberate on the impact of a global slowdown on the Indian MF industry, while the former will discuss growing assets under management beyond cities.
Similarly, there will be two panel discussions with insurance industry executives — one each from life insurance and general insurance — delving into increasing penetration amid changing regulatory landscape.
Another panel discussion with the executives of some of the top non-banking financial companies will look for answers on their transition to universal banks, along with challenges and opportunities.
There will be two panel discussions related to the banking technology – one on the next phase of growth for digital payments, and the other on cybersecurity challenges.
A panel on small finance banks will discuss their potential and challenges in becoming universal banks.