Page 6 - Banking Fiannce March 2018

BANK UPDATE

Paid bereavement leave IBBI Chief asks for customised solutions for IRPs
for SBI staff Dr M.S. Sahoo, chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI)
made a strong statement asking insolvency resolution profes-
A week's special paid leave for SBI em- sionals to stop looking for "ready-made solutions" and desist
ployees who have suffered a bereave- from overcharging for their services.
ment in the family. Family has been
described as spouse, children, parents "Don't look for ready-made solutions... (insolvency resolution)
requires your full heart," Sahoo told at an insolvency profes-
or parents-in-law irrespective of
whether they are dependents or not. sionals' conclave. Stressing upon the key pillars for insolvency
professional he said that talent and character are very important. "Don't try to
Exim Bank raises $1 billion take Rs14 crore from a default of Rs2 crore...," he said, adding that remunera-
tion should be charged in a transparent manner.
The Export Import Bank of India
(Exim) has raised 10 year bonds worth "His position is quite unique compared to other professions. It requires highest
$1 billion with a bond issuance on the levels of integrity, reputation and character. Such responsibilities cannot be
London Stock Exchange (LSE). The is- entrusted to people of doubtful integrity," Sahoo noted. The preofessionals were
sue was 2 times oversubscribed. asked to remain competitive and be updated and use artificial intelligence. "We
know our insolvency professionals are vulnerable to certain things and they need
protection where they are justified", he added.
Allahabad Bank to offer
ESPS FinMin suggests loan swapping to PSBs

Allahabad Bank is looking to sell 50 Public sector banks (PSBs) had been asked to explore the option of selling and
million shares through an Employee swapping of loan assets with other lenders in order to
Share Purchase Scheme (ESPS) and it strengthen their balance sheets. It would also help them
is said that management have an- to focus on their core competencies and trim their burden.
nounced to all its 24,155 employees Finance Ministry has also asked the banks to open micro,
from the CEO to the sweeper to par- small and medium enterprises to increase the credit avail-
ticipate in an ongoing share sale to ability to small businesses. In October,Finance minister Arun Jaitley had an-
employees. nounced an unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore plan to strengthen public sector
banks that are reeling under high non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans.
SBI bad loans worth Rs.
PSB skick start the overseas operation
20k crores
Publice Sector Banks started their overseas operations' review by identifying 41
SBI wrote off bad loans worth banks for "rationalisation" as part of the larger re-
Rs.20,339 crore in 2016-17 and the
form process. The process could involve consoli-
data pertains to the period when the
dation of operations, trimming of staff strength,
associate banks of State Bank of In- exiting from noon-core and non-profit activities or
dia (SBI) were not merged with it.
closing unviable offices. "Many banks entered the
overseas markets. This activity has to be looked
Bank lending rates to in- into. Banks have started the process already and
crease about 41 operations they have decided to rationalise," said Financial Services
Secretary Rajiv Kumar.
HDFC bank raises rates by 10 basis
points, whereas on the same day the "It is not everybody does everything. It is better if they focus on their core com-
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its petencies and build on that. They should rather aspire for leadership in their
policy rate unchanged, to "carefully" identified market segments as per core competence rather than playing sec-
nurture economic growth .Other ond fiddle," he said.
major banks are likely to follow the In the near future, each bank would be adopting a board approved policy as
trend. per its core strength and outsource the non-core activity.

6 | 2018 | MARCH | BANKING FINANCE