Bankers prefer more disclosures on bad loans

Toe cautious line on making defaulter name public

Bankers favour disclosing more on sector-specific defaults and only making public the names of wilful loan defaulters. Most of the half a dozen bankers who participated in a Business Standard survey were cautious about disclosing the identity of each borrower who failed to make payments. They said a wide sweep in making names public would affect lending. The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine if the total amount of loan defaults be made public without disclosing the names of defaulters. Disclosing details of accounts in default irrespective of the reasons might have an adverse impact on business and accentuate failure, the Reserve Bank of India told the apex court.    

One executive director with a large public sector bank said, "I do not think that (making the list public) will serve any purpose. More granular information about stress accounts – sector, nature of problems – should be brought into the open."

“Confidentiality needs to be maintained. The relationship between a bank and its customer is that of trust and that should not be breached," said an executive at a private bank.

“If there are persistent delays in payments by listed companies, rules must make it mandatory to inform stock exchanges. Investors have a right to know,” said an executive with a foreign bank.

Amit Tandon, founder and managing director, Institutional Investor Advisory Services, said granular information on defaults in specific sectors was critical for investors. Names of wilful defaulters should be made known. This would help build payment discipline, he added.

"The debt recovery tribunals are slow and the way they treat us it feels all the mistakes were committed by bankers,” said a public sector bank executive involved in recovering loans.