RAI Retail CFO Summit 2026 Examines Changing Priorities for Retail Finance Leaders
Industry finance leaders discuss AI, digital transformation, compliance, resilience and the evolving strategic role of the retail CFO
The Retailers Association of India (RAI) hosted the Retail CFO Summit 2026 at JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar on September 24, 2026, bringing together CFOs, CEOs and finance leaders from across the retail sector.
Held around the theme “Beyond the Balance Sheet – The Evolving Role of the Retail CFO,” the summit examined how the responsibilities of retail finance leaders are changing amid digital transformation, evolving regulations and the focus on sustainable growth.
Focus on the changing role of the CFO
The summit highlighted the growing role of CFOs in areas extending beyond traditional financial management. Discussions focused on digital innovation, economic resilience and long-term growth, with finance leaders increasingly contributing to strategic decision-making and digital transformation.
Sessions throughout the day examined how CFOs are addressing AI-driven transformation, changing regulatory requirements and opportunities to create value across retail organisations.
Panel discussions covered topics including navigating uncertainty and building resilient retail futures, unlocking strategic value through AI, rewiring finance through AI and digital transformation, and digitising compliance through the evolving GSTN ecosystem.
The discussions also focused on the role of financial leadership in strengthening resilience and preparing retail businesses to address emerging challenges and opportunities.
CEO-CFO alignment takes centre stage
Speaking about the Retail CFO Summit 2026, Kumar Rajagopalan - Chief Executive Officer, Retailers Association of India (RAI), said, "The biggest shift I'm seeing in retail finance isn't any single tool or system — it's how closely the CFO now needs to align with the CEO. Retail is moving too fast for finance to just report on decisions after they're made; the CFO has to be in the room while they're being made, reading the same signals about growth, cost, and customer behaviour as the rest of the leadership team. That alignment determines whether a retailer can move at the pace 2026 demands.
“Once that alignment exists, it stops being two departments working in parallel and becomes one shared read of the business — the CEO's strategy and the CFO's numbers pointed in the same direction. None of that happens on its own. It only compounds when the CFO and CEO are asking the same questions and reaching for the same answers."
Retail finance leaders participate in summit
The summit featured speakers including Ajay Kumar Pandey, CFO, Wellness Forever Medicare Limited; Dharmendra Lodha, CFO, Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands Limited; Narayan Baheti, CFO, Infiniti Retail Limited; Pankaj Chaturvedi, CFO, Shoppers Stop Limited; Pramod Dangaich, CFO, Tata Digital Private Limited; and Preetika Agrawal, CFO, Decathlon Sports India Private Limited.
Discussions also addressed the changing compliance environment facing retailers.
Rakesh Saini, Vice President – Legal, Company Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer, Shoppers Stop, said: "Compliance in retail used to mean filing the right forms on time. That's the baseline now, not the job. The real shift is that compliance functions are expected to read regulatory intent before it becomes law — to see where the direction of travel is headed on data, consumer rights, and disclosure, and build for that ahead of the mandate rather than scrambling once it lands. Retailers who treat compliance as a cost centre are going to keep getting surprised by it."
Regulatory changes create new demands for legal teams
Dhananjay Patil, Senior General Manager – Legal, Croma, Infiniti Retail Limited, said: "The volume of regulatory change hitting retail right now — data privacy, consumer protection, state-level compliance — means legal teams can't afford to work in silos anymore. What used to be a handful of statutes to track has become a moving target across multiple regulators, each with their own timeline and interpretation. The teams managing this well aren't necessarily the biggest ones; they're the ones that built early warning systems instead of relying on catching problems after the fact."
He added: "Retail regulation in India isn't static anymore — it's rewriting itself in real time, across data protection, consumer protection, and e-commerce rules, often faster than internal teams can build compliance around it. The legal function that treats this as a once-a-year audit exercise is already behind. What's changed is that legal now needs to sit upstream of business decisions, not downstream of them — flagging regulatory exposure while a strategy is being built, not after it's already been rolled out."
Dhananjay Patil, Senior General Manager – Legal, Croma, Infiniti Retail Limited, also said: “RAI's Retail CFO Summit has established itself as a pivotal annual event for the retail finance community, providing a platform to explore opportunities, discuss industry reforms, and share best practices on achieving rapid yet sustainable growth.”