2026: A Few Quiet Lessons Banking Taught Me Again

rajbanerjee
4 days ago
3 min read

Early this year, I found myself sitting across the table from a long-standing corporate client.

On paper, everything looked fine. The numbers were still holding. Covenants had not tripped. The account was technically “standard”.

But something felt off.

Not dramatically wrong.Just uncomfortable.

Receivables were stretching. Inventory explanations were getting longer. Management conversations had shifted from confidence to justification.

Nothing that would show up in a dashboard.Everything that experience tells you to pay attention to.

Moments like these have followed me through more than two decades in banking, across India and Africa, through cycles of growth, stress, recovery, and reinvention. As we step into 2026, I have been reflecting on a few lessons that keep returning, quietly but insistently.

Credit Rarely Breaks. It Erodes.

One of the biggest myths in banking is that credit problems arrive suddenly.

They do not.

They arrive slowly, disguised as:

“Temporary delays”
“One-off exceptions”
“Just this once” waivers
“We will regularise next quarter.”

By the time an account turns non-performing, the real failure is already old news.

Some of the most painful lessons in my career were not about deals that went bad overnight. They were about early discomfort that was acknowledged and then politely ignored.

Good risk cultures do not wait for default. They listen for early unease.

Speed Is Not the Villain. Silence Is.

In high-growth markets, speed often gets blamed for weak credit outcomes.

But speed itself is not the problem.

I have seen fast-growing portfolios remain healthy when:

Decisions were clearly owned
Judgment was documented, not assumed
People felt safe raising uncomfortable questions early

What hurts portfolios is not speed. It is speed without conversation.

When relationship teams stop speaking honestly.When credit teams assume someone else is watching the risk.When committees focus more on approvals than implications.

That is when cracks form.

Some of the Best Risk Decisions Happen Outside Committees

A few months ago, a junior team member hesitated before a credit committee meeting and said, almost apologetically:

“Sir, I cannot prove it yet, but something does not add up here.”

That conversation delayed a decision.It also saved us months of cleanup later.

Over the years, I have learned that strong risk outcomes are often shaped before papers reach committees. They are shaped in early reviews, corridor conversations, and moments where someone feels safe enough to push back.

Risk is not a gate. It is a dialogue.

Regulators Are Not Looking for Perfection

One thing regulatory interactions have taught me repeatedly is this.

Supervisors do not expect banks to predict every problem. They expect banks to recognise emerging ones early.

The most constructive regulatory discussions I have been part of were not defensive. They were transparent:

Here is what we are seeing
Here is what worries us
Here is what we are doing differently

Strong institutions do not claim immunity. They demonstrate awareness and learning.

Leadership in Risk Is Mostly About Being Calm

In moments of stress, rising NPAs, market volatility, or public scrutiny, people do not look for technical brilliance.

They look for steadiness.

Risk leadership is not about dramatic interventions or perfect foresight. It is about staying grounded, asking the right questions, and acting early without overreacting.

Calm is contagious. So is panic.

As We Step Into 2026