Bank union, AIBEA, demands that banks recover bad loans from wilful defaulters

Trade unions are usually quick to announce protests to demand higher wages or better working conditions. This time, however, the All India Bank Employees Union (AIBEA), one of the biggest employees unions in India, has decided to turn into a powerful whistleblower. On 5th December, AIBEA gave a call to ‘stop the loot of public funds’ and start recovery of bad loans. This is a welcome development. I have always held that the destruction of giant entities, such as Air India, Unit Trust of India, and giant public sector entities in telecom and engineering, is as much due to employee apathy as it is due to the loot by politicians and bureaucrats. AIBEA has signalled that it will name and shame defaulters, if necessary, to force banks to start acting tough and recover bad loans. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as the banking regulator, is fully aware of what is going on; but now, the unions are asking it to move from rhetoric to action. The AIBEA cites the overused quote about India having sick industries but no sick industrialists. It also quotes RBI governor, Dr Raghuram Rajan, who recently told banks, “You can put lipstick on a pig but it doesn’t become a princess. So dressing up a loan and showing it as restructured and not provisioning for it when it stops paying, is an issue. Anything which postpones a problem (rather) than recognising it, is to be avoided.” AIBEA points out that the top four bad loan accounts add up to a massive Rs22,666 crore, which include Kingfisher Airlines and Winsome Diamond and Jewellery Co. Will RBI stop the “systematic loot of public money” by recognising these as pigs with lipstick?

The data collated and released by the AIBEA is a frightening indictment of the banking regulator and the finance ministry. While the government has been boasting about India having escaped the global financial crisis, how does it explain the four-fold increase in bad loans—from Rs39,000 crore in 2008 to Rs164,000 crore today? The creation of new bad loans is a mind-boggling Rs495,000 crore, according to AIBEA.  And, corporate debt restructuring through provisioning, concessions, waivers, write-offs, concessions, one-time settlements (which are done multiple times), compromise proposals, etc, add up to a massive Rs325,000 crore.  

Write-offs of bad loans by PSU banks in the past seven years amount to a massive Rs140,000 crore. If we include the bad loans of private banks and foreign banks and other financial institutions, the total bad loans are more than Rs2,50,000 crore, says the AIBEA statement. Worryingly, it says, things have reached a point where management is making banks vulnerable by reducing the provisioning of bad loans. RBI has pointed out, and is aware, that the provision coverage ratio of India’s banking system has dropped from 55% to 45% as against a global average ratio of 70% to 80%.

AIBEA’s demand will resonate with depositors who are being asked to pay higher charges for every service, to ensure higher profits for banks every quarter. AIBEA, for once, is on the same side as two big stakeholders of banks—bank customers and shareholders. Clearly, the call to publish the names of defaulters, to make wilful default a criminal offence, investigate collusion between banks and borrowers and the demand not to ‘incentivise corporate delinquency’, will find huge support among ordinary people.