Growth of financial institutions should not be judged only by their scale but also by strong controls and fairness of conduct, RBI Deputy Governor Swaminathan J said as he drew an analogy of ''Shubh Labh" to highlight the quality and legitimacy of the balance sheets.
The Deputy Governor also said resilience provides the foundation for financial institutions' growth, while sound judgement and governance build the trust that lets that growth endure.
ALSO READ: Not A One-Off: RBI MPC Minutes Point To A Rate-Hike Cycle As Inflation Heads To 6% Ceiling
In an address at the FE Modern BFSI Summit 2026 here last week, Swaminathan drew an analogy to Navratri, saying that, in one interpretation, the nine days are grouped into three triads, the first associated with Durga, the next with Lakshmi, and the final with Saraswati.
"The sequence is instructive: strength comes first, prosperity follows, and wisdom and discernment help sustain it.
"In financial terms, resilience provides the foundation for growth, while sound judgement and governance build the trust that allows that growth to endure," he said.
He added that a similar idea appears in the Diwali tradition of opening new account books and beginning them with the words 'Shubh Labh'.
"The emphasis is not only on 'Labh' -- gain or prosperity -- but also on 'Shubh', that is, the quality and legitimacy of that gain are equally important," Swaminathan said.
For financial institutions, that is a useful test of the next balance sheet, he emphasised.
"Growth should not be judged only by its pace or scale, but also by the strength of the controls behind it, the fairness of the conduct that supports it, and the trust it is able to sustain," he said.
The Deputy Governor also said that the Indian financial system enters its next phase from a position of strength, with improved asset quality and comfortable capital positions.
The challenge is to preserve these strengths as the system grows, becomes increasingly technology-intensive and ever more interconnected, he said.
In his address, Swaminathan made three propositions.
He said as institutions pursue growth and remove friction, controls must evolve with the process and trust must be treated as an asset that requires continuous investment.
He also emphasised that resilience must increasingly be understood not only in terms of buffers, but also in terms of the speed with which an institution can detect, decide and recover.
ALSO READ: Higher EMI Or Longer Loan Tenure: What Serves Your Financial Interests After RBI Rate Hike
The opportunities before us are considerable, but so too is the responsibility to ensure that innovation is matched by judgement, growth by sound controls, and ambition with resilience, the Deputy Governor said.
"If we can preserve that balance, the next balance sheet will not only be larger; it will also be stronger," he added.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.