Monday, June 15, 2015

Bad Days Are Ahead For Bankers

Farmer kills self after loan refusal, bank manager booked-15th June 2015
( Read my Observation submitted below)

Farmer kills self after loan refusal, bank manager booked


Click Here To Get Link of Newspaper Asian Age

My Observation is as follows

In the history of bank, I think it will be the first time that a Bank Manager is suspended only because he did not sanction a loan as per wishes of politician, and that too at the instance of a government official.


This incident is not a small one, it should be treated as alarm bell not only for bank officials but for survival of banks too. And this incident is not also unanticipated and unexpected. Government of Maharashtra has already issued warning in the last month that if bankers do not sanction crop loan , FIR will be lodged in police station against them. Trade Union leaders thought it better to keep mum and they did not react at all.

 In olden days Minister like Janardan Pujari used to build pressure on Banks to organise Loan Melas and disburse loan to farmers, traders and others as per sweet will of Block officials and district administration. Bank officials who remained behind target for loan under government scheme or who did not want to sanction loan as per will of politicians used to be transferred to different places and used to be punished in promotion processes.Transfer powers are used in banks as well as in government offices as weapon to kill an officer who do not follow top officials blindly. Trade Union leaders joined hands with corrupt top officials and allowed exploitation of their members .

As a result of this undue pressure on lending , bank officials willingly or unwillingly learnt to oblige politicians and government officials even at the cost of quality of loan . Because it was after all a question of safety of service with respect and do called dignity. Some of officials while working in cooperation with government officials also learnt how to earn bribe and commission in sanctioning of loans under government schemes. This is called  "To kill two birds in one stone". In villages, it is called as "Aam Ka Aam Ghutli Ka Dam' Bank officers thought it better to earn money for self by obliging top bosses .

Not only this , in second phase politicians like Devi Lal and VP Singh built pressure on banks to write off of loans. As a result , it became easier for corrupt bankers and corrupt government officials to sanction loan blindly to serve their dual but evil motive of earning bribe and achieving set targets. This is because , they became sure that even if they sanction loans to bad persons or fake persons, they or their colleagues in next few years will get an opportunity to write off such loans . IN this way , all proofs of bad lending will be finished for ever. Borrowers too are well aware of this culture. They know the art of taking loan from bank and then the art of  building  pressure through local leaders for writing off of loans.

Then came Minister like Chidambram who was not a small player but a big and giant player. He was well aware that political leaders of his party used to build pressure on bank officials to sanction loans to farmers, traders and industrialist. He was right in thinking that  he can earn vote bank by forcing bankers to sanction smaller loans to villagers and by writing off small loan he can further make his future brighter , He took a step forward by forcing banks to lend to big corporate houses in hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees so that not only  he himself can earn huge money as gift from these corporate houses , but his party can also get political fund from corporate houses as a award. He thought to become invincible and he had a dream that his party will win the heart of not only small borrowers but also corporate borrowers and thus his party too will also become  invincible in election.

In this way , Mr. Minister created ground for final collapse of public sector banks. He used to keep all CMDs and EDs in his grip . He knew how to earn money by selling the post of CMD and EDs. He was least bothered of health of banks. He rather helped private banks to prosper and grow by leaps and bounds. He promoted the culture of selling of Government fund . Private banks could offer black money or illegal money to buy thousands of crores of rupees in form of deposits for their banks whereas top officials remained behind in this mad rush for deposits. Actually officials of PSBs are satisfied with undue promotion they used to get from ministers and also patronage they used to get from ministers when their evil works and corruption in lending got exposed .

As a consequence , bad loan started rising in almost all banks. Then ministers of old government used to guide bankers how to hide bad loans or how to rephase and restructure bad loan   to reduce bad loan ratio. IN this way , officers in banks learnt to inflate profits by concealing bad loans through manipulation and by reducing provisions.

Ministers used to tell  bankers that they should compromise with bad borrowers and sacrifice bank's good money for bad borrowers . To add fuel to fire , Congress Government sacrificed Rs.75000 crore by preaching write off of bank loan in the year 2008 so that victory in election of 2009 could be guaranteed.

Now the government has changed. Now Technology called as Core Banking Solution (CBS) has already been introduced in all banks. Now it has become a little bit difficult for bankers , not impossible to hide bad loans. As such banks are now planning how to hide bad loans and how much to declare bad loan in a particular quarter or year so that their old sins are not exposed overnight.

Anyway , whatever may be the historic reasons behind accumulation of bad loans in the books of banks , it is now open secret that NPA ratio and ratio of stressed assets in Public sector banks has gone beyond control . Government is constrained to provide additional capital to these banks for survival and for compliance with Basel norms.

In modern era, government has taken a jumping step forward to gain political advantage though in the name of growth and  giving a boost to credit growth. They are aspiring   to win the heart of farmers, industrialists and all. They have directly putting pressure on banks for sanctioning of loan or to face the punishment like suspension. IN this way it has become clear now that bank officials has to prepare themselves to sanction loan strictly as per whims and fancies of government officials or to remain ready for facing the punitive suspension and humiliation in public domain.


If bank unions chose to function as brothers of top officials and are busy in flattery and bribery like top officials, common bankers should be ready to face the music of ministers, politicians and local government officials . it is no more easy for them to safeguard their service and to protect their respect in society. So far as future and health of banks is concerned , it is sure to move from bad to worse and government will continue to infuse capital to save banks from disaster.



Officers who are clever , will sail their boat in the direction of current of the river and those who will go against the current will either sink or leave the bank. Let us see what happens. But the incident of aforesaid suspension will trigger a new disturbance in banking, it is sure. Here it is not a question whether the act of suspension is justified or not, it s a question of freedom of officers in taking prudent and wise decision while sanctioning a loan.

It is not a question whether the loan amount is small or big. It is a question of culture of lending which is being imbibed in bankers by clever politicians and then denying wage hike telling the burden of bad loans and lesser profitability as reason. When bankers can succumb to pressure for small loans, they freely sanction bigger value loans too without taking into account the risk factor but only considering the whims and fancies of politicians. They thus add to the basket of bad loans without any fear and repercussion.

Some clever officers of bank and politicians argue that  small loans are small piece of total bad assets of banks and banks are supposed to fulfil social welfare motive. Ok It is true . But when top 200 borrowers are said to be constituting 99 percent of bad loans, they say that loan to big corporates are necessary to fulfil national objective for  creating enough infrastructure and for adequate growth in GDP.


When media talk of recovery from bad borrowers who are high profile business houses or take punitive action against erring bank officials and politicians, they argue that such action will be a disincentive to bank officials and it will cause erosion in credit growth and force bank officials to stop sanctioning loans.



It means only evil ways are ways for success. It is better to say that success cannot be achieved by honest and good ways and means.



There is obviously no way to aspire for good lending and recovery from bad borrowers and bad bankers. If Small loan turn bad, it is in large numbers with small values and causes a slow poison to kill bank. When big loans like that of Kingfishers and Zoom Developers go bad, it is like Potassium Cyanide for banks and bank staff.


After all bankers are also human being and when survival is at stake, they think ,as their counterpart in government offices and department think, it better to swim and sink in the direction of river . When protections like Trade Union Leaders become role player of management, it will be unwise for any practical bankers to stick to principles of banking or to follow strictly the rules and laws of lending.

I submit hereunder copy of my Blog written on 26th of April 2015
Govrnment Fund Should Be kept Only In Government Banks

Sunday, April 26, 2015


An Open Appeal To Prime Minister

I am happy that Mr. Narendra Modi PM gives value to Durdarsan in all his meetings, foreign visits and various advertisements. Similarly he should try to give government business to BSNL and Indian Airlines. Thousands of crores of rupees related to various government schemes is deposited in current or savings accounts of private banks which enable private banks to earn hundreds of crore as extra profit. Modi should ensure that entire government fund is parked in government banks only. This will help in improving health of sick banks to some extent.

It is important to point out that if Rs1000 crore of government fund is deposited in Current account of a bank, bank can earn minimum Rs.100 crore per year out of this interest free fund.  As per my rough estimation , at least ten lac crore of government fund is parked in various banks in saving or current account. One may imagine the volume of loss caused by public banks if the same fund is parked in private banks.

It is true that government departments and PSUs prefer private banks because private banks offer better services at some places. But in majority of cases high value fund is parked by officials of government departments  in private banks when value of gifts offered by private banks and value of bribe money offered by officials of private bank to acquire large fund is higher  than that offered by officials of  public sector banks. It is not true that all branches of all Public banks are extending poor services.

Similarly if all public servants, ministers, MPs, MLAs, bankers, and employees of all public sector undertakings are forced to travel only by Indian Airlines , it will enable Indian airlines to earn hundreds of crore of rupees as additional profit. It is true  that public servants prefer travelling by private airlines only because it is cheaper and better than Indian airlines. Government should try to rationalise and regulate airfare and in no case premium fare should be allowed to charge passengers who book ticker during eleventh hour of their visit.

There is large scale corruption in government schools and colleges. There is proper infrastructure and no proper housekeeping of available infrastructure. Teachers employed in these schools though get higher salary do not teach in schools, do not take adequate classes and do not cover entire syllabus forcing students either to opt for private schools and colleges for better study or have alternative method of learning through coaching classes conducted by teachers of government schools or private schools and colleges. If state or central  government properly monitor teaching quality in government run schools and colleges , I think  not only literacy level of the country will increase in true spirit but quality of learning will also get boost up. Not only this , government will also have to stop unfair means used by students in examinations and illegal earning by  teachers in passing a student.

It is open secret that examiners of various school level or college level periodical examinations including recruitment test conducted for various post are not honest in setting of questions, in evaluation of answer sheets and in marking process during Interview process .In the recent past , people of India witnessed how unfair means were used during an examination held in the state of Bihar. I have no doubt that if examination is conducted in fair way, at least 90 percent of students will fail. I have no doubt that students who could not use unfair means during examination , will try their level best to bribe answer sheet evaluators . If state government of Bihar really want to stop corruption in evaluation of answer sheets, they will have to be strict and honest in their intention.

Youth seeking job arrange settings with Interview Panel Members through some mediators to ensure and guarantee clearance in Interview . Such type of setting is done not only for getting job in government schools, colleges, police departments , PSUs, PSBs and other government offices but the same tactics is applied by clever employees to get promotions to higher grade and higher scale.

If government want improvement in quality of education and quality of working in government offices, it will have to improve quality from schools where seeds of moral values are sown. It will have to ensure corruption free, transparent and seniority oriented promotion process in all offices to improve work culture and to stop flattery and bribery culture . It is easy to preach sermons and it appears soothing to delegate powers to higher bosses to pick up staff on merit basis only  . But in fact such delegation of power results mostly in exploitation of staff, misuse of staff for self interest. There is no doubt that power corrupts people and absolute power damages entire system and damage entire culture.

If we look into service quality and treatment quality available for patients admitted in government hospitals , we will have no doubt in our minds that these hospitals are used only by extremely poor families who cannot afford treatment in private nursing homes. Quality of  treatment, quality of medicines, quality of doctors , quality of nurses and other staff, quality of pathological test carried out in these hospitals and quality of infrastructure  , all are of extremely inferior nature and prone to cause death and greater loss to patients and care takers of patients who are admitted for treatments in these hospitals. These hospitals are normally used only for post mortem purposes or in accidental cases when private nursing homes avoid admission of such patients due to police oriented problems. There is no doubt that private nursing homes are of first preference for patients if one can afford it at its own or even by taking loan from friends and relatives. There is no control of charges recovered for various consultations, operations and pathological test in private nursing homes. Still people prefer private hospitals.

This is why people of India in general have lost trust in working , functioning and disposal quality of government run departments, offices, banks and all PSUs. Inspite of all promises by government banks , people prefer banking with private banks, students prefer admission in private schools, passengers prefer travelling by private airlines, consumers prefer landline phone connections and mobile SIMs from private telecom service providers and finally all patients prefer treatment at private nursing homes.

I hope Mr. Narendr
a Modi will take care of points raised by me and take adequate corrective steps.
 
 Lastly I salute Mr. Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India for his generous and quick response in time of all crisis Indian people faced in India and abroad. It is praiseworthy that Indian government have extended sincere , commendable and wholehearted services  to people of Bihar, People of Jammu and Kashmir and to Indians and foreigners in Yemen and Nepal .
 



There is no parallel to services rendered by armed forces during period of all crisis and credit goes to Government for ensuring timely and well monitored action to cope with crisis and to rescue people in crisis. There is no doubt that name of Mr. Modi will be mentioned in golden words and he will be appreciated all over the world for his performance and service to h8umanity without any bias to caste , community , region or country.

Interviews for CEO posts at 5 large PSU Banks start June 15
As many as 26 candidates, including executives from private sector banks, are to appear for interviewBusiness Standard 14th June 2015
 
In a first for state-owned banks, candidates from private sector banks have been shortlisted for interviews, for the post of CEO and MD at five large banks, beginning tomorrow.

As many as 26 candidates, including executives from private sector banks, are to appear for the interviews on June 15 and 16, sources said.

Among the candidates, about 7 are existing executive directors at various public sector banks.
 
This is the first time when executives from private sector banks would be part of the selection process for top jobs in public sector banks including PNB, BOB and Canara Bank.

Each candidate will have to go through three sub-committees or screening committees of two members each.

Members of the screening committees are Department of Financial Services Secretary, Additional Secretary and a RBI Deputy Governor.
 
Besides, the sub-committees have three outside experts. These experts are, former Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI) S Viswanathan, IIM Indore Director Rishikesha T Krishnan, and former Chairperson and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank S Panse.

The final selection of candidates would be made by the appointment board chaired by the RBI Governor.

The department of financial services had sought applications for the post for MD and CEO in Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank and IDBI Bank for a fixed term of three years.

However, the Department did not find adequate number of candidates as per the eligibility criteria. So, it relaxed the norms in April.

While the age limit was increased from 55 to 57 years, earlier, the mandatory board-level experience for the applicants were reduced to one year from three years previously to invite more experienced talent for heading large public sector banks.

Apart from the banking sector, after the new government assumed power at the Centre last year, the Coal Ministry had invited applications from the private sector for the post of CMD in Coal India. But it got no application from private sector executives.

Besides, vacancy in the Indian Bank has come up due to movement of its MD and CEO as vigilance commissioner. In addition, to this CEO post is vacant in Andhra Bank.

In December, the government had appointed Managing Director and CEO in four state-owned banks -- Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank of India and Vijaya Bank. Last month, MD and CEO of Syndicate Bank was appointed.
 
 
 
 

Banks with higher bad debt levels will have to give reasons, says Finance Minister-Hindu Business Line  
June 12:  
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he will wait for some more quarters to find a pattern in the dip in bad debts of public sector banks.
 
“The banks themselves are of the assessment that it may take them two-three quarters to reach a somewhat greater comfort level,” Jaitley told newspersons after reviewing the performance of public sector banks on Friday.
 
Technically known as non-performing assets (NPAs), loans are declared bad after three successive payment defaults of instalments. Bad debts (as a percentage of advances) have come down to 5.2 per cent at the end of March, from 5.63 per cent on December 31. However, the level of bad debts at the end of last fiscal is still high, compared with 4.72 per cent at the end of 2013-14.
 
“Banks themselves are going to make efforts to reduce their NPAs. We did ask each of the banks that have a higher NPA level to explain the reasons,” he said, adding that the Government will closely monitor the NPA situation over the next few months.
 
In four public sector banks — Vijaya Bank, State Bank of Travancore, Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank — the gross NPA level is less than 5 per cent, while in 13 banks, the gross NPA is more than 5 per cent. These include, among others, United Bank of India (9.38 per cent), Indian Overseas Bank (8.3), UCO Bank (8.05), PNB (6.71) and IDBI Bank (6.49).
Matter of concern

Later, the Finance Ministry said in a statement that rising NPAs, which are impacting the credit growth of banks, have been a matter of concern for banks and the Government and were discussed in detail in the meeting.
 
The increase in NPAs is due to some infrastructure projects, slowdown in recovery in the global economy and continuing uncertainty in the global markets leading to lower growth rate of credit. As a result, NPA as percentage of total credit has gone up, it added.
 
In addition, stringent provisioning norms further reduce both future credit flow and profitability. “Public sector banks continue to be under stress on account of their past lending. It emerged in the meeting that a sector by sector approach is necessary for NPA solutions and while companies needed promoter change, others needed greater equity.
 
“Systematic steps towards improvement of asset quality were expected from the banks by the Finance Minister,” the statement said.
 
"An account becoming an NPA is not a sin," Reserve Bank of India tells banks-DNA

Reserve Bank has made a case for developing better strategies to deal with the problem of bad loans as hiding them would aggravate the situation for the banks as well as borrowers.

"An account becoming NPA is not a sin. The time has come that it would be a better strategy that if there is a weakness in the account...rather than postponing, hiding the problem either on the part of banks or borrowers, it is important that the bank recognises NPA then extend a helping hand (to borrowers)," RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra told reporters here.

Stressing that there is no regulation in the world that prohibits "rehabilitation" of NPAs, he said, "if exposure is too big, bank is in a weak position. If exposure is small then the borrower is at weak position. In either of the situation one of the parties will be in a weak position

"...once you declare an NPA then the realities are known and both the parties can sit across the table and workout a support plan which is more realistic and which is likely to succeed."

As of December 2014, gross NPAs of PSU banks were at Rs 2,60,531 crore or 5.6% of the total advances.

The top 30 defaulters are sitting on bad loans of Rs 95,122 crore, which is more than one-third of the entire NPAs of public sector banks. It amounts to 36.50%. 
 
My Observation
 
Banks Book Growth in Deposits By Window Dressing And Reduce NPA By Evergreening and by restructuring of loans . Chiefs of banks has been master in inflating profit by fraudulently reducing provisioning . They propagate the same culture down the line .They use the income generated by lending in writing off bad loans .They in this way  deprive investors from adequate dividend and fail to pay adequate interest on deposits.  

STILL Bank Chiefs Are Awarded and in the same way officers down the line are promoted only on the basis of their capacity to inflate business by window dressing and hide NPA by fraudulent methods.


I have written several times in the past on this matter, RBI has several times accepted the bitter truth of culture of inflating profit by bankers and Finance Minister has through MOF issued stern guidelines many times in the past. Still there is no reduction in the foul game. RBI and MOF think it wise to remain silent spectators and issue a false warning to safeguard them in case of need.

After all who will bell the cat?

Will bankers continue to cheat taxpayers, investors and customers of the banks in the same way and same fashion?

Click Here To Read More on Bad Debts and Window Dressing


Hidden Loan is Like Cancer in Banks

If bitter truth of business is analysed properly at least for last ten years , it will be proved that PSBs have indulged in bad practice since long despite all preaching by RBI and MOF . Scam is deep rooted and loss caused to customer , investors and taxpayers in huge , greater than all scams taken together.

Trade Union Leaders who are supposed to protect banks from corrupt officials have also worked hand in glove with top officials. They too failed to protect honest officers . They too promoted bad culture in banks and hence there is no doubt in it that they too are responsible for making the banks so much sick and for critical position of banks in public sector. It is they who in nexus with management damaged the fundamentally good  culture in banks and allowed private banks to grab entire business of PSBs. 




 

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