· Next Financial Crisis May Not Start in a Bank at All, Warns Sri Lanka Central Bank's Sirikumara at 4th ICC Emerging Asia Banking Conclave
· Risk and Compliance Is Now a CEO Agenda, Not Just a CRO's Job: PwC India's Gayathri Parthasarathy at 4th ICC Emerging Asia Banking Conclave
· UPI Processed ₹230 Lakh Crore in FY26, India's Banking Advances Outpace Deposit Growth: Atanu Sen at 4th ICC Emerging Asia Banking Conclave
Central bankers, regulators and industry leaders from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal converged at Le Meridien, New Delhi, for the 4th ICC Emerging Asia Banking Conclave 2026, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) under the theme “Reimagining Banking in the Age of Disruption.” The session brought together policymakers and senior bankers from across the BIMSTEC region to examine how financial institutions can balance rapid technological transformation with operational resilience and financial inclusion.
Delivering the welcome address, Mr Atanu Sen, Chairman of the ICC National Expert Committee on BFSI and a board member of Tata and Bandhan Group companies, said trust remains the foundation of banking even as technology reshapes the sector. “What we do in banking remains the same. I recall a conversation years ago in Mumbai where the question was asked: what is the crux of banking? The answer was building trust. If you cannot build trust with all stakeholders, you are a failure. Today we are navigating technological innovation, geopolitical uncertainty, climate risk and cyber threats simultaneously, and disruption has become the new normal. Yet according to the World Bank, nearly 80 percent of adults in South Asia now own a financial account, and digital merchant payments in developing economies have risen from 35 percent in 2021 to 42 percent in 2025. India's banking sector recorded 12 percent deposit growth and 15 percent growth in advances in FY26, supported by over 200 digital banking units and a UPI infrastructure that processed around Rs 230 lakh crore, roughly 2.7 trillion US dollars, in FY25-26,” he said.
Shri K G P Sirikumara, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, spoke on building resilient financial systems while balancing growth, prudence and inclusion. “Emerging Asia contributes around 60 percent of global growth, but the same forces driving that growth are reshaping financial risk. A crisis today may not begin inside a financial institution at all; it could originate from a cyber attack, a climate event or a disruption to cloud infrastructure. Resilience is not merely the ability to recover, it is the ability to continue performing essential financial functions while under stress. Sri Lanka's own experience during its recent economic crisis showed how a banking sector built on caution and early preparedness can avoid a parallel financial collapse. Financial inclusion and prudence are not competing objectives; a broader deposit base strengthens funding stability, and access to formal finance improves household resilience. Governance, not capital alone, is what separates resilient institutions from vulnerable ones. As Vidura advised in the Mahabharata, one should prepare for danger while there is still no danger, and that principle remains the essence of modern financial supervision,” he said.
Mr Hem Prasad Neupane, Executive Director, Banking Department, Nepal Rashtra Bank, outlined Nepal's digital banking transformation. “Nepal is a 44 billion US dollar economy with real GDP growth estimated at 3.85 percent in FY 2025-26 and inflation at 2.13 percent. We have 106 licensed banks and financial institutions operating over 11,300 branches nationwide. The number of digital wallets has grown from 6 million before the pandemic to more than 27 million today, and mobile banking users have risen from 8 million to over 30 million. QR-based payments worth around Rs 800 billion, close to 12 percent of our GDP, took place last year alone, a sixfold increase over five years, and more than 95 percent of government payments in Nepal are now conducted digitally. Our financial inclusion index has risen from 0.40 in 2021 to 0.53 in 2025. We are also integrating our national payment interface with India's UPI, and the service is already active for Indian visitors scanning QR codes in Nepal. Nepal Rashtra Bank is piloting a central bank digital currency this year, with full rollout planned by 2027,” he said.
Ms Gayathri Parthasarathy, Advisor to Chairman, PwC India, framed the discussion around three pillars: the disruptions underway, the transformation already in motion, and the challenges ahead. “Reimagining banking in the age of disruption is not a slogan, it is hard work, and it is not glamorous. The first disruption is digital public infrastructure, where India has been a trendsetter and our neighbours Nepal and Sri Lanka have also made remarkable progress. The second is the fintech platform economy; banking is increasingly embedded finance rather than something separate from the banking fabric. The third, and one that is here to stay for decades, is generative and agentic AI, which is moving well beyond fraud detection into making banking transactions more efficient, though it will not replace a trained banker for a long time. Regulatory and geopolitical shifts continue, and demographic and behavioural change among customers is a disruption we cannot underestimate. Banks are already moving from product-centric to platform-centric models, and risk and compliance, powered by data and AI, have become a CEO-level agenda. Cybersecurity, data protection and building hybrid bankers, professionals who combine technology with banking judgement, will decide how smoothly the region crosses this transition,” she said.
Closing the session, Dr Rajeev Singh, Director General, Indian Chamber of Commerce, noted the unprecedented pace of global economic change and its bearing on the banking sector. “The changes we have seen in the last six years are unprecedented. Globally there is hardly any certainty about which way the world will go, supply chains are being disturbed and new alliances are forming. Banking has to keep pace with all of this while maintaining its core values of trust, efficiency and dependability,” he said.
The conclave, now in its fourth edition, continues ICC's tradition of bringing together central bankers, regulators and financial sector leaders from the BIMSTEC region to discuss the future of banking amid rapid digital transformation.