Banking woes: 11 PSB heads to appear before parliamentary panel on Tuesday

Heads of 11 state-owned banks will apprise a parliamentary committee about the problems of mounting bad loans and increasing fraud cases on Tuesday, sources said.

They will be appearing before the Standing Committee on Finance, headed by veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, which is looking into 'Banking Sector in India- Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward, including Non- Performing Assets/ Stressed Assets in Banks/Financial Institutions'. 

Top officials of IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Maharashtra, United Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank, will make presentations before the panel and respond to queries on June 26, said sources.

The banking sector is grappling with rising non-performing assets (NPAs), which touched Rs 8.99 trillion (Rs 8.99 lakh crore) or 10.11 per cent of total advances at December-end 2017. 

Of the total gross NPAs, the public sector banks accounted for Rs 7.77 trillion (Rs 7.77 lakh crore). 

The rising number of frauds has become a serious cause for concern.

The number of frauds reported by banks increased from 4,693 in financial year 2015-16 to 5,904 in 2017-18. The fraud amount at end-March 2018 was Rs 323.61 billion (Rs 32,361.27 crore), up from Rs 186.98 billion (Rs 18,698.8 crore) at the end of 2015-16.   

Earlier this month, RBI Governor Urjit Patel had replied to host of questions asked by the committee members.

Patel, sources had said, was asked about bad loans, bank frauds, cash crunch and other issues.

They also said he assured the panel members that steps were being taken to strengthen the banking system.