11 Public sector banks to knock doors of Parliament: Increasing bad loans and fraud cases perspires them

New Delhi, June 26: Increasing fraud cases and mounting bad loans has made 11 banks’ heads to knock the doors of Parliament. The public sector banks will appear before the Standing Committee of Parliament on Finance in New Delhi today.

 

They will appraise the committee of the bad loan issues and rising fraud cases in the banks. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also a member of the panel which is headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.

The eleven banks include IDBI, UCO, Corporation and Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of India, BOI, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Maharashtra and United Bank will make presentations before the committee.

The banking sector is grappling with rising non-performing assets, which touched Rs 8.99 lakh crore or 10.11 percent of total advances for the quarter ended December 2017. Public sector banks accounted for Rs 7.77 lakh crore of the gross NPAs in the sector.

Rising number of frauds has also become a serious cause of concern. The number of frauds reported by banks increased from 4,693 in fiscal 2015-16 to 5,904 in 2017-18. The fraud amount at the quarter ended March 2018 was Rs 32,361.27 crore, up from Rs 18,698.8 crore at the end of 2015-16.

Earlier this month, RBI Governor Urjit Patel had replied to a host of questions from the committee members. Patel, according to the people mentioned above, 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.