Letter to BS: The RBI has failed miserably in acting as a 'watchdog'

My concern pertains to the regulator - the Reserve Bank of India. It was unable to detect any wrongdoing at PMC Bank

This refers to the letter “Lack of Accountability” by Shanmugham M (October 11). I think that the author of the letter has trained his guns on the wrong entity. An auditor can only 'audit' the information/facts and figures are placed before him. In the PMC Bank scam, accounts related to the loans made to HDIL were hidden, by virtue of a few 100 dummy accounts created specifically to fool the auditors. My concern pertains to the regulator — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). There is something intrinsically amiss, if despite the monthly, yearly statutory statements and the balance sheet in its possession, the RBI was unable to detect any wrongdoing at PMC Bank. The RBI has failed miserably in acting as a “watchdog”. It can be blamed for gross negligence, dereliction of duty, and unconscionable behaviour towards the depositors of PMC Bank. 

Vipan Sarup, Mumbai

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