RBI Deputy Governor says banking sector must be nimble to adapt to tech changes

The banking sector needs to be more nimble to adapt to changes in technology, a senior central banker said here on Friday.

Such technology adaptations will also need to take into consideration the changes in the legal framework, as the Digital Data Protection Act will come into effect soon, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said while addressing a seminar organised by the Indian Banks' Association.

"A standard response to new technology may be not the right thing to do, because the nature of artificial intelligence and quantum computing is very, very different," Sankar said.

He further said that "there is no reason for us to be complacent about technology adoption in banking".

Whether the technology will remain with the same set of skills that were there in the past or not is not known, so a lot of focus needs to be given to technology, he said.

According to him, another area bankers need to focus on is cyber risk.

At some level every system can be breached, which is why everyone is preparing for how best to recover from a cyber-attack, he added.