Lack of empathy leading to rise in complaints: RBI

MUMBAI: RBI deputy governor Swaminathan J has asked new age bankers to guard against new vulnerabilities of cyber threats, phishing, synthetic identities, deepfakes, and third-party risks.

Addressing graduating students at the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) in Pune last week, Swaminathan said they must balance the speed and scale offered by technology with a strong sense of vigilance and personal responsibility. "Banking today is more complex than ever," he said, pointing to the rise in real-time and frictionless transactions. "As transactions become real-time and frictionless, the time it takes for damage to occur-and spread-has drastically shortened."

He said that while digital tools enable efficiency, they have also made banks more vulnerable to new risks. "Vigilance is no longer optional; it is an essential and core professional skill."

Drawing on the Titanic as an analogy, he cautioned that institutions fail not always due to a lack of systems, but due to a lack of foresight. "It is not always the biggest or most advanced systems that succeed. It is the ones that stay alert, that course-correct early, and that respect the value of foresight."

He urged young bankers to think like lookouts on a ship. "You must be that lookout-always asking: 'What is on the horizon? What could go wrong? What needs attention before it's too late?' In a rapidly evolving environment, those who notice the iceberg early-not the ones explaining the damage afterward-will make the real difference."

While digital transformation is critical, Swaminathan warned that technology alone cannot build trust. "We see increasing automation but decreasing ownership. Systems respond with templated emails; helplines loop back endlessly. This is not how trust is built, and certainly not how it can be sustained."

He shared that customer complaints, particularly through digital channels, have increased significantly, often not due to product failures but due to a lack of empathy. "A senior citizen struggling with an ATM pin... a borrower in a rural area unsure how to repay digitally... a small business owner worried about a UPI refund... they are not just service requests. They are moments of trust."

Swaminathan drew a lesson on the importance of conventions and professional judgment from the practice of crossing cheques with "account payee." He pointed out that this practice, though not mandated by any specific statute, has become a time-honoured convention that enhances the safety of transactions and limits misuse.

"There is no specific statute mandating it-but it is a time-honoured convention that enhances safety and limits misuse," he said. These kinds of practices, he explained, are examples of how much of banking rests not just on laws and regulations but on professional norms developed over time.


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