Managing Risks in Commercial and Retail Banking: Review

When it comes to retail banking, this book by Amalendu Ghosh is cited as one among the top 10 important books. This book is believed by experts to take an in-depth, as well as logical look at dealing with every single aspect of risk management, which forms a part of the banking sector. By providing the reader with an ample number of case studies and real life examples, this book attempts to simplify all the complex processes and present them for the reader’s benefit.
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The author, Amalendu Ghosh, occupied the post of Chief of the Department of Banking Supervision of The Reserve Bank of India, where he is believed to have served for about 36 years. He is well renowned as an expert in the supervision of banks and has been intimately involved in the implementation of the new Basel Capital Accord. His proximity to the world of commercial and retail banking makes him one of the experts on the topic, especially when it comes to the risk management aspect. He has also released a manual for conducting of bank supervision, especially that which is required in the switch related to risk based bank supervision system.

He has had an enriching experience at his post of riskmanagement consultant, to around two commercial banks, which intermittently make him the candidate, who is more than qualified for writing this book. This book, which seems to be right in the quintessential corner of Ghosh, was published by John Wiley who happens to be one of the oldest publishers of USA and is acclaimed for publishing a number of renowned titles under risk management, financial engineering, valuation, financial instrument analysis, among which Ghosh’s book seems to be a valuable contribution.

Divided into about seven parts, this book essentially deals with the number of risk management approaches and systems. These are namely, credit risk management, market risk management, operational risk management, risk based internal audit, corporate governance and all the lessons that could be derived from the South-East-Asian and American Financial Crises. Beginning with the first part, it deals with a thorough analysis of what all constitutes a risk. The topics covered here would be types of risks and the various models on how each bank is supposed to manage their problems. The second part is all about the models, which is made use of by various banks in order to rate and evaluate all the credit risk management issues. Here the author offers a number of techniques, which are useful for credit portfolios and rating based loan pricing mechanisms.

The book successfully brings together a number of concepts, ranging from methods and procedures in the field of risk management, to the author’s personal experiences. It is said that this book is the bible for all those financial analysts, students of investment banking, accounts aspirants and auditors. Mainly because it is a distilled form of all the valuable experiences of a top notch, seasoned banker and an authority figure on bank supervision. This is also one of the reason why professional training institutes like Imarticus Learning, usually ask their students to refer to this book. 

The Indian Education Sector Seems To Be Experiencing A Revolution Courtesy Edtech Startups

Did you know, in the past two years, our economy has experienced the emergence and development of close to 900 start ups, all of which are entirely focused on the education sector. The Indian Education Sector values up to $100 billion and has been experiencing quite a lot action in terms of Edtech start ups. With the evolving age of internet and technology, more and more students are able to access the virtual world of learning. This includes interactive videos and textbooks, on line classroom discussions,  exclusively customized learning modules and content from some of the best universities. With the addition of the online learning courses, the doors to education at a more accessible level have been thrown open. From foreign universities offering online courses, to professional training institutes like Imarticus Learning offering online certification courses in Finance and Analytics.

Conventional educational systems seem to be undergoing certain cataclysmic shifts, as the students and teachers both, try and embrace all the comfort, convenience and efficiency that is offered by these Edutech companies. The online courses trend is becoming more and more relevant by the day and being known as MOOC’s or Massively Open Online Courses, is witnessing increasing popularity and acceptance among the student population. While on one hand, time honored institutes like Harvard and Oxford are taking notice of this trend, the government of India is also accepting its importance. The HRD Ministry in India, in similar vein has launched the Swayam initiative, which is a program that is set to offer about 200 e-courses and another 10,000 e-courses under the AICTE, which will all be planned over the next couple of years.

Statistics state that the number of students, registering for online courses has been steadily increasing at the rate of 70% per year. Nikhil Barshikar, who is the CEO of Imarticus Learning states, “Online courses offer fantastic flexibility, convenience and customization; while delivering impactful learning outcomes for students”. He went ahead to add that, “Our online course have been popular among students because they are upgrading their skills with industry relevant subject matter, that is not available in their university curriculum.” As HR Managers come to recognize the importance of updated curriculum, broader talent pools and thorough online assessments, these online certification courses are clearly gearing up to change the way training and learning takes place.

This revolution has been driven by many key factors, one of which includes the emergence of Big Data and Analytics. This has not only revolutionized the way education is looked at, but it has also paved way for more efficient student-teacher relationships. For instance, institutes have been able to leverage data analytics in order to assess the teachers’ abilities and help them provide better guidance to the students. While big data and analytics have paved a greatly important way in the education sector, they have received important implications in other fields related to the education sector. For instance, lets take the example of student loans.

Student loans were earlier the domain of just the banking sector in general. This is no longer the case as there happen to be start ups, which are ready to venture into this field. All these companies have to do, is leverage analytics and provide the loans, with the completion of all the formalities in as less as 8 hours and more importantly, online. This huge change can usher in great benefits for those looking to get skilled by depending on loans. There are great chances of India becoming more and more tech-scary and paving way for technology being able to mold itself to the various different boards of Indian Education.