NPAs, Fraud: Chiefs Of 11 PSU Banks To Appear Before Parliamentary Panel

The heads of 11 state-owned banks will apprise a parliamentary committee about the problems of mounting bad loans and increasing fraud cases on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the development.

They will appear before the Standing Committee on Finance — headed by veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily — which is looking into the challenges faced by the Indian banking sector, including the issues of non-performing assets and stressed assets.

Top officials of IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Maharashtra, United Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank, will make presentations before the panel and respond to queries on June 26, said the people who refused to be identified.

The banking sector is grappling with rising non-performing assets, which touched Rs 8.99 lakh crore or 10.11 percent of total advances for the quarter ended December 2017. Public sector banks accounted for Rs 7.77 lakh crore of the gross NPAs in the sector.

Rising number of frauds has also become a serious cause of concern. The number of frauds reported by banks increased from 4,693 in fiscal 2015-16 to 5,904 in 2017-18. The fraud amount at quarter ended March 2018 was Rs 32,361.27 crore, up from Rs 18,698.8 crore at the end of 2015-16.

Earlier this month, RBI Governor Urjit Patel had replied to a host of questions from the committee members. Patel, according to the people mentioned above, was asked about bad loans, bank frauds, cash crunch and other issues.

They also said he assured the panel members that steps were being taken to strengthen the banking system.