Letter to BS: What remedy will RBI bring to address IL&FS' sorry state?

This refers to “A failure of regulation” (September 26). I agree with what is stated in the editorial. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) and its subsidiaries are undoubtedly in deep financial trouble. The risk of contagion spreading to the banks, Life Insurance Corporation of India, mutual funds and other corporates is real. There is systemic risk involved.

It’s not clear how the sorry state of this financial giant came to light so late. Top executives and board members are calmly walking off citing health grounds or personal reasons. Why shouldn’t their exorbitant salaries and handsome bonuses be clawed back for mismanagement, if the law permits? If public funds are to be used to bail out a private entity, the least the government can do is to fix accountability of top executives and the board. Did the independent directors on the board of IL&FS discharge their responsibilities? Did the external auditors mention the problems in their reports? How is it that the credit rating of IL&FS paper has all of a sudden fallen from top class to junk once the problems came into public knowledge? Didn’t the credit rating companies track the deteriorating financial parameters over the last five years or so? Did they have to wait for defaults to happen, before sharply downgrading the IL&FS paper? 

The Reserve Bank of India needs to see whether it threw up danger signals in time and what remedial steps it took to address the situation. There are a plethora of questions to be answered by a lot of institutions. The moot point is, after the bail out and clearing up of the the wreckage, will these questions be answered?

Arun Pasricha  New Delhi
 

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