Letters: Banks & autonomy

This refers to the editorial "Autonomy for ATMs" (December 27). It would be interesting to note that considering the low degree of functional autonomy in public sector banks (PSBs), their overall performance is still better. PSBs together control more than 70 per cent of assets in the Indian banking system, have a huge network of branches spread across the country and also have socio-economic commitments towards the society. All said and done, PSBs are finding it increasingly difficult to evolve with time vis-à-vis keeping pace with the fast changing developments in the banking and finance world in terms of meeting the additional capital requirements for their future expansion programmes and sorting issues related to manpower and succession planning. This certainly does not suggest that granting greater functional autonomy will help them sort out all the issues at one go, but it will enable them confront the issues in the most effective and meaningful manner considering their individual requirements and limitations.

Srinivasan Umashankar Nagpur

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