Be Positive on Banks

The way government is moving, the way Sri Vinod Rai thinks, the way Finance Minister Sri Jaitley ji and Dy FM Sri Sinha ji are visualising stressed assets and declared No Performing Assets  NPA of banks, the ways they suggest to clean bank's balance sheet, the way they are protecting looters and shielding erring officers, they way they turn their blind eyes on political exploitation of PSU banks  I may say without hesitation that volume of NPA in banks will continue to go up and up and real guilty will never be punished , rather they will continue to get   promotion after promotion as usual.

I may say that government may alter the colour of bad assets, they may put carpet on malady, they may change the bottle of wine,but they cannot reduce NPA, they cannot reduce malady and they cannot change wine of the bottle. Government may sell bad assets to ARC or convert them into bonds or different forms . They may force RBI to change definition of NPA or force banks to restructure bad assets or may indirectly advice banks to indulge in evergreening of stressed assets.

Banks may write off bad debts to hide their evil works . Banks may compromise with bad borrowers and sacrifice huge interest of banks in the name of cleaning balance sheets. But they cannot put brake on ever increasing slippages and cannot contain ever rising trend in bad assets.

Banks can give quickest promotion to their Yesmen but cannot nsure quality in lending.They can post good officers to critical places and reject them in promotion processes, they can recruit officers at higher packages from campus and they can employ thier kith and kin in the name of specialists but cannot improve quality of working and honesty in working in banks.

Because the evil culture of promotion to flatterers , promotion to bribe earners and evil culture in lending are deep rooted . Officers as well as politicians from top to bottom are birds of same feather. They all are busy in making their own career bright and prosperous instead of protecting their bank. Irony of the entire episode is that looters are standing in disguise as savers.

Officers in Bank care more for their bosses and politiicans care more for their vote bank as also for their families , friends and relatives. Honest officers in general are few in numbers in all banks and they are never united in raising voice against injustice. On the contrary bad officers are united strongly to protect each other when they are trapped and when their evil works are exposed. Good officers are either sidelined or they keep them aloof from bad officials to save their skin and to protect their families from unbearable agony .

Thieves cannot suggest ways to catch thieves.Looters cannot disclose modus operandi of their loot . They canot dig their own grave by telling truth behind ris in stressed assets in banks.  It is always easy and safe for them to put blame squarely on economic recession and global slowdown . This is why no reduction in stressed assets is visible though officials, ministers and RBI dignitories use to conduct meeting every quarter to discuss ways to contain bad debts and they appear to make efforts for improving health of banks for decades and decades

As long as Government and RBI  consider causes of sickness as medicine to cure sickness, there is no doubt to me that sickness of public sector banks will continue to detriorate and remain critical till it finally collapse. Government can infuse capital year after year because it is easy to punish innocent taxpayers and depositors than to punish bad bankers, bad borrowers and bad politicians.

God too cannot help them who do not want to be helped. Bankers are not as interested in improving health of their bank as they are interested to improve and brighten their own career and own fortune. They keep their accusing fingers towards political environment or economic policies or sectoral weaknesses. Corrupt officers and politicians are in general good aurators and they use their speaking power to motivate their mentors.

Private banks are as unhealthy as public sector banks. Private banks are little better only because they do not blindly follow the dictates of evil minded politicians and do not blindly put into effect  their ill-motivated plans.However irregularites in use of precious resources of their bank are more dangerous and they too are sitting on bomb of bad assets as their counterpart in public sector banks are.

RBI has neither will to control Bad HR practices and bad lending practices prevalent in these banks nor do they have  adequate manpower to discharge their duty as they used to do before launch of reformation era.

In general RBI officials are also victim of same culture of flattery and bribery as officials of PSU banks are.

Employees in banks can spend crores of rupees in extending red carpet welcome to their bosses and distributing gifts to their masters. They can waste  hundreds of manhours in making preparations for giving king like worshipping to their bosses during their visits in their area , but do not have time to ensure quality in lending and perfectness in making efforts for recovery of dues from defaulting borrowers.

Let us wait till  good senses prevail in regulators .