‘RBI should’ve acted on Yes Bank 5 months earlier’

Oct 21, 2021

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MUMBAI: Former State Financial institution of India chairman Rajnish Kumar has mentioned in his e book that the Reserve Financial institution of India ought to have sacked the Sure Financial institution board 5 months earlier in November 2019 because the financial institution was already dropping deposits and defaulting on reserve necessities.
In his e book, ‘The Custodian of Belief’, the previous SBI chairman has supplied some behind-the-scenes glimpses of what went into resolving one thing that appeared as a Lehman Brothers second for India. It was throughout his tenure that the monetary sector was hit by the triple failure of IL&FS, DHFL and Sure Financial institution.
Giving a touch of the workings of Sure Financial institution, Kumar reveals how the non-public lender stepped in to assist GVK attain monetary closure for its Navi Mumbai undertaking. The Rana Kapoor-promoted financial institution had charged a excessive upfront charge even when SBI — which was a number of occasions larger and dealing with stress from varied authorities — was reluctant given the group’s burdened state of affairs. He has additionally questioned the delay in deciding on the reappointment of Kapoor, which left the RBI with no alternative however to supply a three-month extension as much as January for Kapoor.
Declaring that Sure Financial institution’s plan to boost capital was not nicely thought out and the board had not utilized its thoughts to a revival plan, Kumar mentioned, “The motion that the RBI took as late as March 2020 might most likely have been taken as early as November 2019. However everyone seems to be wiser looking back.”
Kumar has additionally dwelt extensively on the Jet Airways collapse. Based on him, the SBI board was cautious of backing Kumar on a decision plan for the airline with out a letter of consolation from the finance or aviation ministries. The airline’s destiny was lastly sealed after Etihad rejected the decision plan.
Based on Kumar, the negotiations with Etihad had turned ugly with each Jet promoter Naresh Goyal and SBI coming round to the view that Etihad was solely within the Jet Privilege programme the place it held stake and wished to open this to different airways. When this was talked about to Etihad CEO Tony Douglas in a gathering by SBI MD Arijit Basu, the Etihad chief moved menacingly in the direction of Basu and was stopped by Kumar’s intervention.
Kumar, whose tenure coincided with the good dangerous mortgage clean-up in Indian banks, additionally exposes some bitterness in banks taking the autumn for a collective failure amongst stakeholders. “Attributing non-performing loans fully to crony capitalism or zombie lending solely highlights the shortage of an in-depth evaluation of the state of affairs, in flip inflicting resentment amongst bankers,” he mentioned.
The e book, which is printed by Penguin, is devoted to the late Arun Jaitley who Kumar says guided him in essential choices. It was Jaitley who supported SBI’s choice to chunk the bullet and supply for dangerous loans with a wry assertion in Hindi: “Aur kya kar sakte hain, Rajnishji? (What else might be performed?)”
One other fascinating reality is that the reclusive former governor Urjit Patel, who was earlier on the SBI board, met Kumar solely as soon as throughout his tenure and closed the doorways for all communication with banks.



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