Can’t treat compliance as a quarter-end activity: RBI DG

Banks cannot treat compliance as a quarter-end activity, and must have stronger operational discipline and data governance throughout the year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Swaminathan J said in a speech at the Third Annual Global Conference of the College of Supervisors.

- AATHIRA VARIER

The speech, delivered on Friday, was uploaded on the RBI website on Monday.

“In a fast-changing environment, backwards-looking compliance checks are necessary but not sufficient. We have to be able to spot weak signals early, test resilience before incidents occur, and intervene before vulnerabilities become an event,” Swaminathan said while emphasising that explaining and fixing an anomaly quickly, once it’s flagged, becomes a marker of control maturity.

Commenting that third-party management should be treated as risk management, he said institutions will need better oversight of partners, clearer accountability for incidents, and contracts that support audit, access, and resilience. “The regulated entity cannot outsource responsibility,” he said.

Swaminathan said customer grievance is not merely an irritation but often an early warning, and urged banks to find the root cause of complaints and resolve them on time.