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AI & Digital Lending
…rpreted as absence of adoption. Similarly, presence of disclosure should not be read as an assessment of effectiveness, governance quality, model performance or implementation depth. The views expressed are personal and intended for professional discussion. Many of the themes hav…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…ay be enough. If the conduct bucket and cash-flow bucket both weaken, verification is needed. If conduct, cash-flow and governance signals start appearing together, early borrower engagement becomes essential. If the borrower’s explanations remain inconsistent and account behavio…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…cators around business scale, repayment discipline, promoter profile, leverage, related-party behaviour, compliance and governance. This is valuable progress. But signal generation is not the same as credit judgement. The role of such platforms is to reduce raw-data burden, impro…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…to decision support. The Darpan Effect is when dashboards reflect the past but fail to direct attention to the future. Governance: The Flywheel Must Be Auditable In regulated lending, AI cannot be mysterious. Every AI-supported flag, summary or recommendation must be explainable…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Legal Perspective Series : Episode 4 A bank may do everything that banking process expects it to do. Title documents may be obtained. Legal scrutiny may be completed. Mortgage may be created. Disbursement may be made. Default may occur. SARFAESI action may beg…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…he ground reality. If it does not, possession may be more than a recovery issue. It may be an early warning signal. The Governance Lesson The possession trap is not solved by adding one more declaration to the MoDT. Nor is it fully solved by obtaining a tenant NOC. Declarations a…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…performed? In fraud risk, unenforceable structures are often not merely technical defects. They may be symptoms of poor governance, wilful blindness, collusion or camouflage. The CFE’s role is to test whether the paper trail reflects a genuine, lawful and performable transaction…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Justice, Scheduled—But Not Served Listed, But Not Heard: The Accountability Gap in Justice Delivery We smiled when Advocate Chaudhary delivered that iconic line in Damini . It felt exaggerated. Dramatic. Cinematic. But for many litigants today, it is no longer…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…tection Tomorrow’s fraud is beginning to meet yesterday’s controls. This is not merely a technology issue. It is also a governance issue. Boards, investigators, auditors, credit teams, operations teams, legal teams, and policymakers may all need to revisit the language with which…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…any real repayment taking place. The borrower has not paid. Yet the system briefly believes repayment has happened. The Governance Question The issue here is not about cheques. It is about control symmetry. If institutions require governance and approvals to recognize default, sh…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…FIT Rank Works Better Fitment frameworks tend to work better in environments where: financial reporting is standardized governance structures are formalized operating models are stable and transparent. These conditions are more common in large corporate lending or mature SME ecos…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…enuine. This is why AI should be seen not as a replacement for human judgement, but as a powerful complement to it. The Governance Challenge The rise of algorithmic decision-making raises a fundamental governance question for financial institutions: How do we ensure that faster d…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…jective is clear: uniform policy enforcement and strong centralized control . Trade-off While the structure strengthens governance, it can also create decision latency , as authority sits far from the customer. 📦 Illustrative Institutions Bandhan Bank Yes Bank (during post-restr…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Section 94, Sequencing Power, and the New Insolvency Reality Section 94 Received The branch received a letter. It was formally worded. Procedural. Calm. The personal guarantor had filed an application under Section 94 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Gold Jewellery Funding : Episode 19 A ring rarely comes alone. It comes with a finger size, a stone, a promise, a memory — and often, an expectation that something so small must be valuable. In gold lending, rings are the most misunderstood collateral: compact…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Bangles: Behaviour, Duration & What Time Reveals ORNAMENT Sub Series : Gold Jewellery Funding : Episode 18 Sunita didn’t pledge her necklace again. She chose bangles. One bangle at first. Then another, a few months later. Each decision felt temporary Each pled…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
From Temporary Liquidity to Silent Continuity ORNAMENT Sub Series : GOLD JEWELLERY FUNDING : Episode 17 Sunita didn’t pledge her necklace again. She chose bangles. One bangle at first. Then another. Each time it felt small. Each time she told herself she’d cat…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…anks 5–8% Medium Rising Rising Moderate Inherited risk Cooperative Banks 10%+ (often) High Very High Persistent Minimal Governance-driven exposure 2) What Balance Sheets Did Not Say Explicitly No annual report disclosed line items such as: “Loans to pawn brokers” “Re-pledged gold…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…rise not from bad intent, but from: Product layering Ambiguous responsibility Over-engineering around restrictions Good governance is simpler than clever structuring. Conclusion Gold and jewellery funding is not a regulatory minefield —it only becomes one when intent, custody, cr…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why the Confusion Persists Gold Jewellery Business Series - Episode 13 India’s gold ecosystem sits at the intersection of culture, collateral, credit, and compliance . As gold loans surge and jeweller-led schemes multiply, so do q…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…nd govern against it ? PART E — REGULATORY–LEGAL CONVERGENCE Recent RBI directions emphasise: Renewal discipline Top-up governance Valuation standardisation Borrower exit rights Legal Reading: Regulation is pre-empting litigation by forcing lifecycle hygiene. What does “regulator…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…iming risk Custody questioned 1–2 Rare Rare 2–3 Process & control risk Denial of exit alleged 2–4 1–2 1–2 3–6 Lifecycle governance failure Footnote Incidence bands are based on publicly reported consumer forum orders, High Court proceedings, and FIR disclosures in the last ~24 mo…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…t, But they also rarely close, Exposure duration silently lengthens, And risk migrates from credit quality to lifecycle governance . This is not fragility. It is misread stability . 6. Small Finance Banks (SFBs): The Shock Absorber Representative SFB behaviour Bank Gold Loans (%…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…s. Weakly governed entities show persistent renewals, collateral substitution, and delayed auctions. Here, outcomes are governance-determined, not collateral-determined . Cooperative Type Gold Loans (% of Loan Book) Gold GNPA Dispersion Observed Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) 10–…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Jewellery Business Series - Episode 8 Not how loans are sanctioned, but how risk quietly travels. Act 1: The Customer Walks In A jeweller walks into a bank branch. He is profitable. He has customers. He has gold moving every day. He also has advance money from…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Jewellery Business Series - Episode 7 Across multiple jewellery clusters, a recurring structure emerges — what I refer to as the Gold Timing Mismatch Pattern — where customer money arrives before gold is actually owned or hedged, creating temporary liquidity c…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
JEWELLERY BUSINESS SERIES - EPISODE 6 How Can a Banker Tell This Just by Looking at the Balance Sheet ? You cannot see the fraud directly. But you can see the timing distortion very clearly — if you know where to look . Think in four lenses , not one. Lens 1:…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Jewellery Business Series - Episode 5 The Schemes Around Gold — and the Risks They Don’t Advertise Gold has always been marketed as safety. But the moment it is wrapped inside a “scheme”, the risk quietly shifts—from the jeweller to the customer, and from the…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Jewellery Business Series — Episode 1 A story of fire, skill, memory… and money . If you walk into a jewellery workshop before sunrise, you will hear it before you see it. The hiss of the furnace. The metallic tap of a hammer. The whir of a rolling mill waking…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…, banks are scored on an EASE Reforms Index , tracking progress on digitisation, automation, inclusion and tech-enabled governance. The message is unmistakable: Legacy banking complexity is being challenged. What happens when we confront legacy? The results are already visible. A…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…rtual card issues strong app-centric control millennial-friendly UI But it also revealed the fragility of ignoring data governance . In 2024, some partner banks stopped issuing new co-branded cards after RBI flagged that One Card’s tech stack had too much access to customer trans…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
TAT - The untold stories There was a time when bankers feared NPAs, audits, inspections, and credit committees. Today, they fear something far more colourful: the next morning’s TAT dashboard . One red cell is enough to trigger panic. People raise queries they…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Aadhaar vs PAN/Passport If there is one question that keeps surfacing in customer onboarding counters across India, it is this: “My Aadhaar has an initial, but my PAN and Passport have my full name. Can the bank force me to open the account as per Aadhaar?” Sh…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…w human choices — not system flaws — bypassed SWIFT protocols. Technology worked; integrity didn’t. In 2020, Yes Bank’s governance collapse showed how ignoring internal warning signs can unravel an entire institution. The lesson is simple: Controls are only as strong as the consc…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…claims — “We can’t breach limits.” And yet… breaches happen. Quietly. Daily. Not because technology failed —but because governance did. LIMIT TREES The Reality — Too Many LOS, Too Little Linkage Think of the limit tree as a family tree for credit. The root node is the borrower’s…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…ess—this reduces anxiety and increases trust when the process is transparent. 3. For Fraud & Risk Teams – Precision and Governance Objective: Make fraud detection efficient, explainable, and adaptive . Precision Tuning: Set product-specific alert thresholds : Retail/BNPL: High pr…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…it/financial data, useful for anomaly checks, not central fraud flags. Building “another CFR/Hunter” needs legal cover, governance, liability frameworks, and massive participation—barriers that keep the field concentrated. What’s improving in existing systems (and what still isn’…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Policy Vs Practice Series Policy Intent When the SARFAESI Act was introduced in 2002, it was hailed as a game-changer. For the first time, banks in India could enforce security interests without the long wait of civil courts . The intent was clear: empower len…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Policy Vs Practice The Setting (Rating Methodologies) A branch credit officer is reviewing a ₹50 crore working capital renewal for a reputed engineering firm. The borrower proudly points to their BBB rating from a leading agency. Looks decent. Case closed? Not…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Policy Vs Practice Series Policy Intent: Regulatory frameworks — from RBI’s capital adequacy norms to provisioning requirements — are designed to safeguard the banking system and ensure credit discipline. Practice Reality: In real-world cycles, these very rule…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Policy Vs Practice Series THE BEGINNING In just 67 days of early 2020, the RBI slashed the repo rate by 115 basis points — the steepest short-term cut since the global financial crisis. Corporate loan yields at India’s top banks fell by nearly 1% in a single q…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…ability or repayment behaviour — banks inadvertently end up: Sanctioning excessive limits to legacy borrowers with poor governance but clean papers Underserving digitally vibrant MSMEs with strong performance but weak documentation Relying heavily on historical balance sheets , i…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…sory observations reveal a disconcerting reality: high utilization rates, minimal reduction in principal over time, and governance lapses that threaten to undermine financial discipline and stability. A lifebuoy (symbolizing support) gradually morphing into a heavy chain tied to…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Opening Scene Mumbai, June 2025. Dr. K, a 73-year-old retired cardiologist, receives a video call. A woman, fluent in English, claims to be from TRAI. Moments later, a uniformed officer appears on screen. He shows Dr. K a document with the Mumbai Crime Branch…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
How artificial deadlines make us bypass logic and fall into deception. 🧾 REAL STORY: A Missed Package, A Costly Click Kochi, 2023 Rajesh, a small business owner, received an SMS on a busy Monday morning: “Blue Dart: Package delivery failed due to incorrect KY…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Curiosity-driven trust — when the urge to know overrides the instinct to pause. REAL STORY: The Email That Felt Too Specific Hyderabad, 2023 Priya, a 29-year-old HR executive, received an unsettling email: “Final Notice: Your resignation approval letter is pen…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
– When Trust Wore a Saree and Taught Multiplication Ponzi In the dusty corridors of a government school in Cuddalore, everyone simply called her “Ma’am.” Not Mrs. Something. Not by her first name. Just Ma’am — the kind that stayed etched in school diaries and…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
When Misinformation Comes in Familiar Fonts He didn’t have a title.He didn’t wear a uniform.He didn’t even show his face. Yet, during the early days of the pandemic, his voice message went viral across Tamil Nadu: “Don’t take paracetamol — it’ll worsen COVID.…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
(Based on true events in Kolkata, 2021) – When the Seal of Science Was Forged In June 2021, as India reeled from the brutal second wave of COVID-19, a peculiar vaccination camp was set up in Kolkata’s Kasba locality . The banners bore the logo of the Kolkata M…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
(Based on the real 2019 Hyderabad “Fake IAS” marriage scam) – When Authority Becomes the Mask of Deception – He arrived in an SUV with a red beacon on top. Symbol of Authority He carried himself like someone used to deference — fluent English, structured speec…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…come institutional culture rather than legitimate risk-based judgment, it erodes the credibility of both automation and governance. These exceptions are often justified under business pressure or internal influence — but every such case becomes a loophole that questions the moral…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Whilst half the country over is immersed in fighting “Vedic” battles over the relevance of Onam and the Thiruvonam day, it has been quite an experiential learning exercise this season at the heart of it all in Kerala. This onam, we decided to try own recipe of…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Recently read about Dr. Masaru Emoto's Water Experiments....... Showing the effect of Positive Energy and being associated with Postive thoughts.. Considering that water forms nearly 75% of the Brain material, this experiment showcased the importance of remain…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…audsters are oppurtunists who are tuned to looking out for such process gaps and exploit them to the core. Reduction in Governance or lack of process has historically shown that the process gap is prone to misuse. One could debate that misuse happens even where processes exists a…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
As has been my experience, in my recent years of my career, the start point for any investigation, Underwriting, or process has been to check if all facts were correctly elicited and recorded and then check for misrepresentation. This brought forth an importan…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Change of jobs, Change of roles, Change in bosses, Change in organizations, or New Organizations – I’m sure, irrespective of our vintage or age, all of us have had our fair share of fears. However, the enhancers, in these instances, have been opinions, informa…Read in full
Credit & Underwriting
…seen from a Risk Officer’s view, which would encompass Sales, Credit, Operations, Marketing, Collections, Risk / Policy Governance, and Risk Containment (Frauds / Vigilance etc.) Why Underwriting ? Do we need it ? The start point is a theory that different factions of business, f…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
…unctioning and harnessing of people (sleeper cells), it would be difficult to complete our collections / repossessions. GOVERNANCE Many a time, we strategically communicate the presence of validations being made. In reality, we may be equipped with far less capability than projec…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
A recent chance meeting at an Agri University, led a group of us discussing very broadly on the systems orientation / adapting of an algorithm based approach in Agri Business Management. It was very interesting to note , of trends, where in many farmers used t…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…growth for Farmers ? ***** We can go on and on… and yet one simple thing strikes as we look through all these pieces…. GOVERNANCE. (A) A Government which could work so much on passing benefits to the farmers, have not been able to put good governance systems to ensure effective…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…es and sops to farmers primarily to make farmers embrace mechanization, and enhance productivity. However, largely, the governance of each of these subsidies, has left a lot in expectations. In majority of the cases, bad governance has led to misuse of these schemes, which are ot…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
THUREEYA / SAHASRAHARA - The overview / Big Picture " The Brain " One of the main challenges in the assessment methodology is – Dissection / eliciting information with the big picture in mind. To understand this better, we take the example of a jigsaw puzzle w…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…surance that disconnects of any kind are sorted out. d. Usance of the last amount and the extent of support from NGO in governance. 4. Anger, more than anything, is an exhibition of weakness. The genesis of the weakness needs to be identified if we want to include the prospective…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Charismatic leadership style with a human touch is a rarity. Seldom do we have the opportunity to experience this style in all its glory. Yet, here is one such story. What is amazing is their ability to give new "family additions" their space and allow them ti…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Introduction given in Part 1 ( Repeated for sake of continuity / reference ) : It looked like just another day. Yet, it was a day which got me crystallizing my views and thoughts. The topic is a clichéd one – Role of internal check mechanisms. Nay, it is not a…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
It looked like just another day. Yet, it was a day which got me crystallizing my views and thoughts. The topic is a clichéd one – Role of internal check mechanisms. Nay, it is not about how and where. It is about some lovely concepts that came out the discussi…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Continued..... from Part 1.. ..highlights of a talk on "Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing" Observation 3 - Know your domain I've read about Luca Pacioli's Quote, which I shall use slightly differently - "He who does business without knowing all abou…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…urprised at the way frauds come down. The farmers do not require waivers. In the absence of better mechanisms of income governance, they seek waivers…. Don’t believe me – here’s proof : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w-oZdEzotQ&feature=youtu.be Coming back to the topic - " Frau…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
At a recent gathering, I was asked to speak on " Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing ", and this was more of an impromptu talk with little time to prepare. Yet, I gathered and covered the talk in points of Observation, in the background of Rural and F…Read in full