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Informist, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026

 

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--RBI Sankar: Confident banking industry will do well in tech adoption 
--CONTEXT: RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar speaking at IBA event 
--RBI Sankar: Urge tech use to achieve aggregation, ensure fair pricing 
--RBI Sankar: Can improve fraud detection, mgmt with AI 
--RBI Sankar: We have to aim for zero fraud environment 
--RBI Sankar: Important that bks remain in system to maintain customer trust 
--RBI Sankar: Frauds in payment systems going down 
--RBI Sankar: Digital transactions up five times in four years

 

MUMBAI – It is important that banks collaborate and use technology for aggregation of data and to ensure fairly-priced loans to customers, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said in a speech at an event organised by the Indian Banks' Association on Friday.

"Let's make an effort...the whole idea is that we can use technology to achieve aggregation, which will obtain the pricing efficiency that is necessary in this particular field," Sankar said. 

Speaking on how technology needs to be deployed to generate and maintain trust in the banking system, Sankar advocated for collaboration between banks, and between the banking system and other entities for innovation of technology to ensure transparent and fairly priced loans to clients. Sankar pushed for banks to come up with suggestions to the central bank on such matters. It is essential that processes and technology in the banking system give the user confidence and trust that the prices the user gets are 'efficient' and 'not exploitative', Sankar said.

 

If products are not priced transparently and fairly, customers will shift to other options, Sankar said. Trust has to be a core principle to be maintained when adopting new technologies, be it in a bank or in services and pricing of products offered by a bank, the deputy governor said. While trust in a banking entity takes a long time to build, one or two bad incidents could erode trust in the institute quickly, Sankar said. For trust in the banking industry to remain strong, banks should focus on maintaining their clients, and maintain their role in the economic system, Sankar said. Technology can be utilised to reinforce and build trust, he said. Technology will enable the banking industry, but the system needs to have effective follow-ups and processes, he said. 

 

Digital transactions have risen five times in the past four years, Sankar said. On the other hand, frauds in payment systems have been going down, he said. Roughly around 4,800 transactions conducted via the Unified Payments Interface daily are subjected to fraud, and the banking industry should aim for a 'zero fraud environment', Sankar said. Artificial intelligence can be used to detect and manage frauds after they occur, he said. For this, artificial intelligence should have access to better data.

 

"So having an engine that runs on a particular bank or a particular payment system's data is, therefore, by nature limited. If you can have a system that uses system-wise data and not just payment data, not just banking data, maybe a lot of other data including geo-coordinates data, or including telephone information, then the ability of these engines to identify frauds either before they happen or manage frauds after they happen will be by definition better than any single system," Sankar said.

 

Sankar called for greater collaboration in ventures introduced by the RBI's Innovation Hub, such as the MuleHunter.ai artificial intelligence tool, which by attempting to identify mule accounts, would aim to recover the amount lost in fraud. Sankar also asked for greater engagement for when the pilot of the RBI's digital payments intelligence platform begins, in order to roll it out quickly. Sankar also said that the Unified Lending Interface is very good for both the customer and banks. The customer can choose the best offer, while banks can access all relevant information needed to make a credit decision all in one place digitally, he said.

 

Sankar said that the banking industry should be prepared for 'more disruptive technologies' such as quantum computing, which will likely arrive in a few years. Sankar also cautioned that the fast-changing evolution of technology meant that a specific facility of a bank may not remain with the bank in the future. The Indian banking industry is showing enthusiasm for technology, Sankar said, and that he is confident it will measure up to challenges faced upon adoption of new technologies.  End

 

Reported by Cassandra Carvalho

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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