Friday, November 25, 2011

Non Performing Assets are on rise




Bankers are now shedding crocodile tears after spoiling the bottom line and health of bank,,
"Sau Chuhe Mar kar Billi Haz ko Chali"

Total Amount of Non Performing Assets in Banks have crossed one Trillion rupees in the half year ended September 2011 and there is sign of improvement .



Most of the big value advances are given green signal by top ranked officers and are processed at branch or regional level after telephonic pressure or verbal instruction from some or the other top ranked officers or some minister or some other VIPs.

When advance goes bad it is low level officers who are made scapegoat, it is new branch head who is posted there is made responsible for lack of monitoring , but never the officer who is main culprit behind the bad assets is punished, rather such officers are promoted and given cream posting.

Message is clear, never bother for advance going bad but bother for senior officers who visit the branch or regional office.

Officers who earn wealth , huge wealth from corporate can only spend lavishly on big bosses. Officers who have always ill earned money in their pocket can arrange five star stay, five star hotel and red carpet welcome for bosses and arrange high value vehicles for bosses who visit their office.

Big bosses move from one place to other for getting warm welcome and not for doing something good for the bank.

“Hanthi ke dant dikhane ke kuch aur hai , khane ke kuch aur hai.”
This is an old but popular proverb.

Everyone in the field knows very well what top ranked bosses want and what they are expected to do. I do not talk about some exceptional devoted officers who are very few among a crowd of corrupt officers.

Obviously NPA has to rise, lending has to come down, gross NPA ratio has to go up and profit has to fall.

Most of senior officers who appear to be serious on assets going bad are shedding crocodile’s tears for rising trend in NPA and they are least bothered for recovery but bothered for their safe retirement. In this process a good number of senior executives have already retired from the bank leaving behind a plethora of bad assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

Now when vigorous follow up is become inevitable under pressure from Ministry of Finance and RBI, new incumbents at Branch or RO are facing the brunt of top management for none of their fault.

There is an old proverb in Hindi,

“Khet Khaye Gadha, Mar Khaye jo Raha”


If bankers really want to send positive message to ground level officials and other employees , they have to punish officers who for their vested interest lent money to bad borrowers, who gave verbal instructions for sanction of finance to bad borrowers for self interest and prove it that bad officers will not be spared , how big he or she may be.

Senior Officers who have been isolated from mainstream despite good knowledge , sincerity and honesty have to be brought back in the mainstream and given due recognition . Only honest and sincere officers should be made Branch or Regional Head , and not those who are number one flatterer.

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