BS Banking Annual 2018: The worst may finally be over

Ailing banks, especially public sector banks, appear to have put many of their problems behind them

In the past few years, bank chiefs have repeatedly asserted “the worst is over”, only to produce more lemons and sloppy numbers in the next quarter.

After a batch of emphatic bank chiefs retired uttering these words, their successors were more circumspect, preferring to say “we are nearing the end”. They were disappointed too, as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) auditors unearthed more bad debts than the bankers would have wanted their investors to believe.

Bankers faced the RBI’s wrath for hiding bad debts, and a few had to leave their positions after getting roughed up by the regulator. Some three years