REPORT ON SEMINAR CONDUCTED BY FINEX CLUB

July 2, 2005: Seminar on “Emerging Challenges in Banking Sector”. The seminar started at 2.00pm. The Guest Speakers were eminent senior persons who have 25 to 30 years experience in banking sector. The Speakers were from different commercial banks and Apex Institutions like SBI, HDFC, KARVY and NABARD. They were all great speakers who had tremendous knowledge about different aspects in banking sector.

Inaugurating the event, Prof. Amit Baruah, Dean Administration, discussed the changing scenario of the Banking sector. He stressed the importance of the sector for aspiring MBAs in finance, in a day where bankers are reaching customers with multiple products, and competition at an all time high.

The first speaker was Mr. Ramesh Sistla, General Manager, Karvy Consultants Ltd who spoke about different norms in banking sector. He also told about the difference between Banking and Financial Sectors. Further, He spoke about Basel – II norms, various Challenges in Banking sector, new trends in banking sector like Transition in banking sector, Emphasis on product banking etc, Consolidation of banks, Virtual banking and Risk Management in banks in terms of liquidity and profitability.

The second speaker was Mr. Chakradhar Rao, Assistant General Manager, SBI, who spoke about size of the bank matters today. He told that now banks are selling range of products. He also spoke about Jewel Loan Classification (purpose), Small and Medium Enterprise and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Further, he told about the strategies in core banking and Real Time Banking.

The third speaker was Shri. G. Sairajan, Senior. Faculty NABARD, Training College, who interacted with the students with humor, and made the seminar very lively. Many students were glued in listening to his talk on ‘Micro Credit’. He started with the evolution of Micro Credit and told about various segments in Micro Credit. He told about India’s unique description on account of languages, festivals, caste and religion. Further, he spoke about why women are in Micro Credit and salient features of Micro Credit.

He stressed on value addition to agricultural products by encouraging farmers to adopt improved agricultural practices, for e.g. organic farming, Sericulture, Cultivation of Aromatic Plants, Contract Farming, Tissue Culture and Green House Cultivation. One of the salient features of the Scheme is, the banks prefer to lend for Micro Credit for its low transaction cost, 100% recovery and low cost deposit. He also suggested measures for reducing the NPA and improving the recovery performance. He also spoke about the problems in Micro Credit for e.g., that the farmer who brings the project profile does not know the format of the same. They should have a bankable project report which contains all the norms and rules of preparing the project profile. There are three principles of a proper project profile:-

• Technically Feasible.
• Financially Sound.
• Easily marketable.
• Socially Acceptance.
• Economically Viable.

Similarly, he said different new trends in banking sector that now the banks want the customer, Customer does not want the banks because their various options created for the customer. Today, Banks keep Farmer Friendly Banking Hours which can suit the farmer’s requirements.

The fnal speaker was Mr. Ravi Krishna, Branch Head, HDFC Bank. He spoke about E – banking, ATM, Credit Cards and Debit Cards. Further, he talks about how to market the financial product etc.

Thus, the Seminar on the whole was a knowledge exercise, informative and on different norms and guidelines in banking sector. All the guest speakers groomed the students which would help them taking Finance as a specialization. Lastly, it was a wonderful experience which would be remembered.