Sunday, December 22, 2013

Importance of Human Resource In Bank

God Knows what the Chief of a bank has done for his Human resources  during his tenure of three or six years as CMD in a bank. It is easy to preach the sermons to others but difficult to follow it. Some people are clever in teaching and speaking goods ideas and course of action to others to please the audience, but they in action do not do what they speak.

To give faster promotions is one thing and to identify effective good officers for the post of General Manager is a different thing. It is not exaggeration to say that Bankers got the power of giving promotion to officers in shorter tenure by speaking so many lies like shortage of quality manpower at higher scales or higher number of officers retiring in near future to RBI and Ministry of Finance. but failed to create an atmosphere conducive for good officers to perform. 

It is easy to give promotion to young officer fastly and make him GM or Regional Head or Branch Head of a bank's branch but totally different to ensure long lasting justice for the bank and for all employees including seniors. All seniors are bad and all juniors are good is not the secret of success. It is only the quality of working and that of experience in banking which should decide the policy of Human Resource Development, not the quality of Yesman. 

It is true that management of many public sector bank has made many young but inexperienced officers as Branch head discarding senior and experienced officers who lacked Yesman culture. But the devastating result will surface only after a few years when banks will be trapped in cases of fraud, bad debts and litigation. Banks did not have succession planning a decade ago result of which bank is facing now. Similarly evil works of a CMD may come out only when his successor comes. As long as an officer is indulged in bad lending during his posting as branch head , he is treated as Star Performer in a bank but when he is transferred to other branch , his evil work comes on the floor, that too in some cases only because all are afraid of top bosses who favour bad officers only. Very few officers have courage to say spade a spade.( Read below the loss caused to bank by bad debts and by frauds and by write off)

Therefore a bank can be effective and progressive in real sense only when its chief gives due importance to quality, to knowledge and skill to do best banking and not to flattery and bribery. During the tenure as Chief, most of chiefs of banks enjoy power ,misuse power and mostly give value to recommendations of friends to whom he or she  likes , he does not punishes wrong persons who are responsible for growth in  frauds and bad loans, rather he  exonerates them and on the contrary promotes such officers who are really responsible for rise in bad debts and frauds. A good performer is not promoted but a bad performer in bank is usually promoted and given better posting provided he or she is well versed in art of flattery and bribery, he extends red carpet welcome to executives who visits his place.

 Fortunately such Chief of bank get free exit from bank because of their clever attitude and mastery in art to motivate top officials in RBI and MOF. His ill motivated decisions damage the bank, damages the work culture, damages the loan sanctioning culture, stops recovery culture and promotes the culture of flattery and bribery and as long as he or she is in service books are manipulated to show best Balance sheet and to make public image but as soon as he or she leaves the bank, entire malady comes on the surface. 

Public sector banks have several such experiences when a bank called a best performer or star performer s declared as worst performer after two or three years of his retirement from the bank. And unfortunately these bad executives get more opportunity to head other financial or non financial institute even after retirement because they are setting master.

Only person like Kejriwal can say the truth of bank and only person like Kejriwal can say spade a spade. One can expose the misdeeds of leaders of Congress Party and that of other ruling party when person like Kejriwal comes to power. It is however not possible in bank because majority of top officials are of same culture who promote flattery and bribery only and it is they are who causing more losses to banks and getting awarded by Government of India and RBI. 

It may be possible in future when a disgruntled officer or frustrated businessmen or some of media men take cognizance of large scale corruption prevalent among bank‘s top ranked officers and expose them, or CBI take stock of the wealth of few top officials to expose the bad culture prevalent in bank which is responsible for endangering of public money in banks. 

After retirement it is easy to say that a bank must have succession plan much in advance or have best best training system to make best leaders and best performers. But the real test of a man takes place only when he or she is posted as chief and how far he effectively uses his power to strengthen Human Resource in best way for doing best for the bank not for personal gain .or for making his own power greater. Culture of flattery and bribery does not takes place in any bank or any  office or in Government until honest workers are given due weightage in promotion and posting.

Any organisation , any bank , any political  party or any government or any country cannot prosper in real sense as long as its executive body  act in a way which enables flatterers to flourish and performers to  perish.

Pure performance leads to real prosperity whereas flattery oriented and fraudulently fabricated performance lead to only temporary and transitory feeling of shining  but in long run punctures the very plan of prosperity .

Indira Gandhi in 1971 game slogan of "Remove Poverty" but could do nothing to reduce poverty in two decades of her rule. Rajiv Gandhi , the then Prime Minister told that due to corruption , hardly 15% of fund reaches in the hands of real beneficiaries, but failed to make it 100% during his decade long rule. Now his son Rahul Gandhi is preaching sermons on corruption and poverty , but his mother led UPA government did nothing to punish corrupt leaders and corrupt officers during last ten years of rule. 

Similarly all CMDs of  public sector banks talk of change , talk of reforms, talk of growth , but in real sense they themselves prosper and rise to greatest height but the bank they lead become sick and critically sick. Results of bank at least say this bitter truth.


‘Bankers should focus on human resources’
L. N. REVATHY

COIMBATORE, DEC. 22:  
The Indian banking industry is at the crossroads where human resources is concerned, according to former Union Bank CMD M.V. Nair.
He was referring to the huge intake of youngsters in the industry (in recent years) on the one hand, and the large number of voluntary retirements on the other.

“While this can be converted into a great opportunity, it can affect the base as well if banks fail to plan properly,” he cautioned.
“The present day banker has to comprehend and cope with the growing customer base, changing profile and expectations, lest they (customers) move to some other bank. Redesigning branches and transforming the bank will not suffice.

“The culture should also change with customer expectations,” he told Business Line during an informal chat.

Comparing the training imparted during his time with the present day mentoring of youngsters, he said: “Skill development is becoming crucial. Banks have to look for professional faculty to train these people. Even today, the trainer is from within the bank. They may be good communicators, but not necessarily good bankers.”

He admitted that most bankers at the helm did not focus much on human resources till recently. “This is affecting the banks now, especially with regard to leadership,” he said. Traditionally, a banker rises to become a general manager only at 55-57 years, he pointed out, adding that the ideal age is 43-45.
The opportunity to rise to this level due to sheer pressure and promotion is far greater now, he said.

The CEO should put a succession plan in place and impart leadership training, he added. ‘HR is a much bigger task. It needs tremendous planning,” he said.

Recover at least 10% of bad loans: Finance ministry to banks –Economic Times 23.12.2013 (link given below)
NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has directed state-run banks to recover at least 10% of loans that have gone bad, by the end of this financial year after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) put some lenders under its scanner over losses and rising non-performing assets.

"Banks have been told to step up the recovery process. The finance minister has already directed that banks should not write off more than what they recover," said a finance ministry official on condition of anonymity. State-run banks have written off loans worth more than Rs 60,000 crore in the last three years, according to government data.

The central bank and the government have long made it clear that they want banks to crack down on such debt and serial defaulters. RBI has proposed draft rules that promise a more stringent regime on bad loans and how they should be restructured.

"This is one section where banks are also not focusing. We now expect them to take charge through legal processes and debt recovery tribunals (DRTs)," the official said. While the ministry has been pushing banks to recover assets, this has met with little success. In April-June, recoveries by state-run banks amounted to a mere Rs 1,416 crore while they added more than double the amount as bad loans, according to finance ministry data. The ministry wants banks to take proactive action on nonperforming loans and avoid the kind of situation that United Bank of India find itself in. 

The Kolkata-based bank, which posted a loss of Rs 489 crore in the second quarter, is under RBI scrutiny, which has barred it from restructuring debt and sanctioning loans of more than Rs 10 crore to any single borrower. The loan book of state-run Allahabad Bank is also being inspected by RBI.

The finance ministry has directed state-run banks to recover at least 10% of loans that have gone bad, by the end of this financial year.


Fraud In Bank Goes Up And Up

Bank frauds rising: Double to Rs 6,212 cr in 2012-13-Business Line

Public sector banks main victims of poor appraisal systems
Bank loan frauds almost doubled in 2012-13 adding up to Rs 6,212 crore against Rs 3,183 crore in the previous year. Public sector banks accounted for a chunk of these frauds. In terms of numbers, 349 cases of fraud of over Rs 1 crore were reported in 2012-13 up 28 per cent over the previous year’s 273 cases.
A fraud is an act or omission intended to cause wrongful gain to one person (in this case, the borrower) and wrongful loss to the other (the bank), either by way of concealment of facts or otherwise.
In a recent presentation, RBI Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty said poor credit appraisal and low level of promoter equity have led to a jump in the number of loan related frauds, especially diversion of funds. Loan related frauds accounted for 64 per cent of the money misappropriated followed by technology related and know-your-customer (mainly in deposit accounts) frauds.
There has been a 15-fold rise in large value fraud cases involving amounts of Rs 50 crore and above, from three cases in 2009-10 (involving an amount of Rs 404 crore) to 45 cases in 2012-13 (Rs 5,335 crore).
Chakrabarty observed that loan appraisal standards are lax for bigger loans both at the time of sanction and restructuring even as the assessing standards are stringent for smaller borrowers.
Loan appraisal must focus on the quantum of equity brought in by the promoters, the source of the equity, and the contingency planning in respect of infrastructure projects. According to Chakrabarty, “Increase in cases of large value fraud in accounts financed under consortium or multiple banking arrangements, involving even more than 10 banks at times, is a newly emerging, but unwelcome trend in the banking sector. Another glaring issue in this context is the considerable delay in declaration of frauds by various banks in cases of consortium/ multiple financing.”.
He pointed out that the RBI has come across cases where there is a lag of 12-15 months in declaration of the same case as fraud by different banks. This not only enables the borrower to defraud the banking system more, but also gives him time to erase the money trail and queer the pitch for the investigating agencies.




















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