M. Nagaraju, Secretary, DFS: Economic growth, technological upgradation, infrastructure development, social empowerment, and sustainability are the criteria of Viksit Bharat 2047
M V Rao, Chairman, IBA, and MD & CEO, Central Bank of India
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, March 17, 2025: Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) hosted their 77th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on March 17,2025 at Hotel Taj President in Mumbai, bringing together over 200 of esteemed members and distinguished guests to reflect on the past year’s activities and explore the path forward for the Association.
The inaugural session was presided over by Chief Guest Shri M. Nagaraju, IAS, Secretary, DFS, Ministry of Finance, Shri M V Rao, Chairman, IBA, and MD & CEO, Central Bank of India, Shri Atul Kumar Goel, Chief Executive, IBA and Shri Gopal Murli Bhagat, Deputy Chief Executive, IBA, in the presence of senior dignitaries and officials from public sector, private, foreign & other banks, AIFIs and media.
Welcoming the participants in his inaugural address, Shri Atul Kumar Goel, Chief Executive, IBA highlighted the active participation from all member banks for their in-depth deliberations on various topics in the Standing Committees and Managing Committee, helps in representing our concerns/feedback to the Supervisors and Regulators from time to time. He further commended the guidance and support of the DFS and other regulators, that today the banking industry is in the best ever financial health with over Rs.3.50 lac crore of net profit booked by all Scheduled Commercial banks in FY 2024.
At the inaugural session, Shri M V Rao, Chairman, Indian Banks’ Association, and MD & CEO, Central Bank of India, gave comprehensive review of the initiatives taken by the association and the larger role played by IBA over a period of more than 7 decades of its existence. Over the years, IBA has emerged as an important platform for banks to collectively engage with all stakeholders, regulators and Government on several policies, initiatives and issues which are quite relevant to the banking sector.
Mr C S Setty, Chairman SBI, and Deputy Chairman IBA in his address said that ‘Banks are the backbone of our financial ecosystem and play a crucial role in financial intermediation and therefore nation-building. In this process, several initiatives taken by the government to formalize the MSME and agriculture sector through digitalization also facilitated banks to lend to these segments. Advent of digitalization has helped to dramatically change these segments and banks are now in a position to develop innovative models to expand formal credit to the sectors that were previously struggling to get access to formal credit. He also emphasized the core areas where IBA could play a role by sharing the information from various agencies and global institutions and sharing the best practices and creating a pool of experts that could help formal financial institutions.
Chief Guest Shri M. Nagaraju, IAS, Secretary, DFS, MoF, in his address said that over the last three years, the banks have recorded fantastic performance Page 3 of 3 and during the last three quarters of the current fiscal also banks have performed well. Regular review meetings with banks have revealed that the industry is in a position to meet the growing needs of the economy. Further, he highlighted that ‘amidst the shift in geopolitical landscape, there is a need to navigate for growth dynamics and also to move towards Viksit Bharat 2047 -- which is the government's vision to transform the country into a self-reliant and prosperous economy by 2047. Economic growth, technological upgradation, infrastructure development, social empowerment, and sustainability are the criteria of this programme. In this, he emphasized that the banking sector has key role to play in this mission of the government. He also appreciated the encouraging response from IBA whenever Ministry approaches them for any matter concerning the banking industry, which helps in policy making decisions for the industry and encouraged continued dialogue and collaboration.
The business sessions were presided by Shri M V Rao, Chairman, IBA which saw the smooth conduct of the election process for Foreign Sector Banks and Co-operative Sector Banks. At the end of the session, Shri Atul Kumar Goel, Chief Executive, IBA expressed sincere thanks to all the dignitaries, members, guests and media persons. Looking to the future, he said that ‘IBA is committed to addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the financial industry as a whole. By fostering collaboration across banking, and other sectors, IBA aim to support innovation, resilience, and sustainable growth within India’s financial ecosystem’.
