Newsletter, October 2009 - IDRBT

INSIGHTS FROM THE TOP : Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, and Visitor, IDRBT,
interacting with members of Governing Council at IDRBT
MAKING IT DELIVER : A MAJOR INITIATIVE ON IT GOVERNANCE FROM IDRBT
ITH the economic meltdown in the West and Governance, only can help banks in addressing this
the resultant slowdown across the world, alignment challenge, he added.
WCorporate Governance has assumed significance of an
Making IT Deliver
unprecedented magnitude. Now that pervasive use of
With a view to "Making IT Deliver" its full potential to
IT in enterprises across the world for internal and
the banking industry - all its players and stakeholders -
external communication, interaction, business
we have launched a major initiative on IT Governance.
processes and knowledge management has far outpaced
all our expectations, the enormous capacity for IT The efforts started in January 2009, where we instituted,
Governance to contribute efficiently and effectively to as part of our IDRBT Banking Technology Awards for
Corporate Governance needs no emphasis.
Excellence, a new award category for IT Governance
The Banking Scene
and Value Delivery. The feedback gathered from the
Banks in India have come a long way as far as usage of
Banks, gave us a better picture of the current status of
technology is concerned. Most banks have attained
conceptual awareness, reach, extent and depth of
sufficient maturity in technology adoption. Some of
implementation levels of IT Governance in Banks.
them have even gone on to use IT in innovative ways. This led us to plan for a pilot programme on IT
Now is the time to concentrate more on making IT Governance for Executives in the Top Management -
implementation and usage more efficient and effective. AGMs and above. This two-day programme was
For this, they will have to focus on the effective ways and successfully conducted on April 27 and 28, 2009. A
means of unlocking value from the way IT is deployed, good mix of 22 executives from Business and IT Wings
used, controlled and integrated into the business of the from different banks attended this programme.
Bank.
We also propose to mount a series of effective steps to
There is an urgent need for spreading the heightened impress upon all the stakeholders to take IT
sense of awareness needed for controlling and Governance seriously, as the only way forward for
exploiting IT to the maximum extent to derive the full growth with value and values, without any further loss of
benefit in terms of managed risks, reduced costs, time. As part of this initiative, we have also launched a
improved returns, effectiveness and efficiency.
research project to evolve an IT Governance
Framework for Banks, which seeks to draw upon the
Dr D. Subba Rao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India,
best practices across various standards and frameworks
and Visitor, IDRBT, in his address to the bankers, at
currently available, apart from factoring in the views and
the IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence Awards
practical possibilities from the bankers themselves.
function, held on May 18, 2009 highlighted that a major
challenge in IT implementation for banks is the For more details on IT Governance initiatives and Inalignment
- of Business, IT, HR and Organisational Company Programmes, please contact :
Structure - which is so critical to derive value. IT Shri M.V. Sivakumaran, Assistant Professor
Governance, an important component of Corporate (mvsivakumaran@idrbt.ac.in).
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