Letter to BS: Stakeholders must work to bring banks under RBI's regulation
Time has come for putting PSBs under absolute and unequivocal regulation of the RBI without the government having a say in the matter
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Illustration by Binay Sinha
This refers to "The legacy issues of public sector banks" (September 13) by Y V Reddy, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The article, while putting the nationalisation of banks carried out in 1969 and 1980 in perspective, raises certain pertinent points. The public sectors banks (PSBs) face dual control of government of India as well as that of the RBI. In fact, the control of the government over PSBs has been a hindrance for the RBI in regulating these banks. Urjit Patel, former RBI governor, mourned the fact that while he was in office, the RBI did not have adequate regulatory powers to regulate the PSBs. Clearly, time has come for putting PSBs under absolute and unequivocal regulation of the RBI without the government having a say in the matter. As this would require wider political consensus, all stakeholders need to work towards this.