Association of Professional Bankers kicks off 26th anniversary convention tomorrow
Wednesday, 15 October 2014 01:15
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The Association of Professional Bankers will be holding its 26th anniversary convention on 16 and 17 October at the Oak Room Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo 3. The inauguration ceremony followed by cocktails will be held on 16 October.
The Chief Guest will be the Governor of the Central Bank, Ajith Nivard Cabraal. The key note speaker will be Micheal Zamorski who is the Adviser to The South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre.
The theme for this year’s convention is ‘Reshaping Banking for Changing Times’. The theme was inspired by many proposals forwarded by its valued membership and the Council. The theme is a most opportune one given the current industry scenario where banks are faced with shifting macroeconomic indicators, increased regulation and demanding customers among which a significant percentage belong to the technology-savvy millenials or Generation Y.
The banking industry is faced with many changes globally and locally. Globally the continuing sluggish recoveries in both Europe and the USA have had an impact on global spending and investment which has percolated to our own country and the economy. Locally banks are faced with policy initiatives of consolidation, declining interest rates and spreads and the increasing dearth of skilled and experienced staff, specifically middle to senior management.
The consolidation initiative would bring about synergies in terms of process reengineering, much needed human talent, cost savings and strengthened product suites to give a much better varied product and service offering to the customers.
The reorganisation of bigger stronger banks could grow their balance sheets and invest in associated businesses which will improve the overall returns of the industry. It is the stated objective of the regulator to have at least five banks with balance sheets exceeding Rs 1 trillion in assets with a regional presence. The reshaping of strategies, structures and implementation would be a crucial imperative to the successful attainment of these objectives.
The industry is undergoing a major innovation challenge in that it has become mandatory for banks to consider a digital strategy in taking banking forward into the second decade of the 21st century. It would be the banks who form early alliances with technology solutions/services providers and customise the solutions to be offered through the bank’s distribution platforms with robust security that would have an edge over their competitors.
Subsequent to the financial crisis from 2007 to 2009 the regulatory structures of banking have become more complex, stringent and pose significant cost challenges to financial institutions. Banks would need to strategise within the regulatory structures such as higher capital and exacting liquidity ratios in the forthcoming implementation of Basel III. Sustainability of a business model in this climate would require the agility of an industry such as IT in banking. The marketing of banking services and the lynchpin of success for all strategies the human capital in this reshaping exercise could only be termed as compulsory.
The technical sessions on 17 October have been structured to deliberate the above areas of profound interest to the banking fraternity and all its stakeholders such as APB’s valued clients, rating agencies, analysts, financial markets professionals, economists, academics and all interested parties.
APB has lined up a selection of eminent speakers to deliver timely content on topics such as information technology as an enabler for customer retention in banks, managing profitability and growth in an era of increasing compliance and regulated environment, human resources development and talent management for future banking and finally marketing strategies in a digital era and social media.
The array of speakers are Faiq Faaiz of MIT, Rajashekera V. Maiya of Infosys, Dr. Ranee Jayamaha – incumbent Chairperson of Hatton National Bank, Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri – Acting Director Post Graduate Institute of Management of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and Siddartha Banerjee – Country Marketing Director of Unilever Ceylon.
