Bank officials to brief parliamentary panel on mounting NPAs, frauds

New Delhi: Top officials of both public and private banks will on Monday, brief a parliamentary panel on the issue of mounting Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and banking frauds.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by Veerappa Moily has called the Indian Banks' Association officials to appear before it on Monday.

The association has top officials of all the major banks in the country as its member.

As per a Lok Sabha bulletin, the panel will be briefed on the issue of rising NPAs and other bank-related matters.

Members of the panel said recent bank frauds will also be discussed.

The meeting is being called after RBI governor Urjit Patel said the Central Bank did not have adequate powers to deal with public sector banks.

The panel has also called Patel for a briefing on the same issue later this month.

The committee was earlier briefed by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar.

Earlier, bankers appearing before a different parliamentary panel had said the 180-day resolution plan for NPAs under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was not an adequate window.

They had also suggested the emphasis should be on restructuring the stressed assets and that referring cases for resolution under the IBC should be the last option.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a member of the committee, is likely to attend the meeting.

Gross NPAs of state-owned banks had crossed Rs 7.77 lakh crore at the end of December 2017, according to official data.