total exposure to india. the study of ‘ india ’ s top 20 banks ’ by the s & p / crisil, released this week, documents the steady improvement as well as their operating resilience and preparedness for basel ii. the report lists the challenges, the most important being the risk - management and consolidation. rbi expects to release the report on trends and progress in banking in a couple of months, which, i hope, will add further comfort to the analysts of our banking sector. indian corporates have demonstrated that some of them are world - class with noticeable overseas acquisitions ; and the global as well as domestic expectations from their entrepreneurship are perhaps unprecedented. s & p / crisil have also published a report on " indian top 50 corporates " this week, which is candid in assessing the strengths of india ’ s corporate sector along with possible challenges. as a central banker, i was struck by a remark in the introduction to the report. the report appreciates the overall financial profiles of the top 50 corporates and describes them as currently ‘ strong ’ to ‘ adequate ’ but comments that the companies choosing to debt - finance their growth could face challenges. it is in this context that the joint efforts of the banks and the corporates in india could perhaps be an imperative for meeting the challenges ahead. the relationship of the banker and corporate borrower in india has come a long way from the days of highly regulated economy. during the last two decades, there has been a sea change in the outlook of the banks as well as the corporates towards each other. while the balance sheets of banks are now stronger and their operations far more transparent, their lending practices too are better attuned to the requirements of various categories of borrowers. the corporates, on their part, have shown a greater sense of responsibility in the use and repayment of the borrowed funds. a noteworthy aspect is that under current guidelines relating to external commercial borrowings, indian corporates have been able to borrow significant amounts from overseas directly, based on their own credit standing. in this context, it would be useful to recall some of the important policy initiatives of the rbi relevant to bank - corporate relationship. dr. rangarajan ’ s monetary policy of april 1997 announced a package of 1 / 3 measures permitting multiple banking arrangements for the corporates and providing greater operational freedom to the banks. dr. jalan ’ s policy pronouncements followed through this initiative with development of the money market, move towards

michelle w bowman : creating a new model for the future of supervision speech by ms michelle w bowman, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the community banking in the 21st century research and policy conference, st. louis, missouri ( virtual conference ), 28 september 2021. * * * good afternoon. i ’ m pleased to be able to join you again virtually for this year ’ s community banking in the 21st century research and policy conference. although i think we would all prefer to be together in person, in the shadow of the st. louis arch, i ’ m optimistic that next year ( which will be the 10th anniversary of the conference, by the way ) will give us the opportunity to finally gather in person after a two - year hiatus. for nine years, this conference, which brings together researchers, regulators, and community bankers, has enabled us to hear from top academics around the world who conduct research to help us better understand the community bank business model. it ’ s not an accident that this conference is sponsored by three agencies involved in the supervision of banks — the federal reserve, the conference of state bank supervisors, and the fdic — as the work of this conference has informed, and will continue to inform, how we think about the supervision of our nation ’ s community banks. our conference sponsors entered this partnership with the belief that what we learn here will deepen our understanding of the benefits of, and the challenges facing, the community bank business model, which, in turn, helps to make us better bank supervisors. it ’ s natural then to ask : what have we learned from this conference that is applicable today? what might we apply in the future to the supervision of community banks? to answer that question, or quite frankly, to answer many questions that pertain to the regulation and supervision of banks, it ’ s instructive to first go back a bit in history. in this case, i ’ d like to take you all the way back to... 2019. seems like a lifetime ago. way back then, we were concerned about liquidity. banks were concerned about a potential runoff of deposits as consumers found new, more technology - centric ways to manage their money, often outside of the insured banking system. although we also saw a decline in technology costs that enabled banks of all sizes to offer a wider array of digital products and services to their customers, the innovation taking place outside the banking sector was often seen as outpac