BackThe problem with bad loans
The health of the banking sector is deteriorating. India needs robust insolvency laws
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The sharp economic downturn has once again brought the problem of bad loans to the forefront.
In its annual report released on Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) pointed out that the health of the banking system is linked to the credit cycle. “Financial institutions tend to overstretch their lending portfolio during economic booms and tend to retrench the same during economic downturns," it said.
The market is often abuzz with speculation about the inability of some overleveraged business groups to service their bank loans. India has traditionally had a system that tries to help companies in financial distress, making it easy for them to restructure loans. Even RBI has pointed out that the ability of Indian banks to maintain asset quality is “partly on account of the policy of loans restructuring".
While bad assets of Indian banks have grown 46% in the fiscal year ended March 2012, the growth pace of credit has been at 17%. On 31 March, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banking system amounted to ₹ 1.37 trillion and restructured assets ₹ 218 trillion.
To reduce the adverse effects of economic downturns on companies and lenders, corporate debt restructuring (CDR) was introduced by RBI in 2001. Despite success in helping companies emerge out of financial troubles, there are several shortcomings in this mechanism. India continues to miss strong insolvency laws.
Restructuring often involves extension of maturities, lower interest rates, debt forgiveness, among others, in case a firm is unable to repay its debt. Further, loans may or may not get classified as NPAs after they are restructured. A working group set up by RBI to review existing guidelines on loan restructuring has recommended increasing the provisions for accounts which get the asset classification benefit on restructuring. Hence, such restructuring places huge stress on the resources of banks
Such restructuring has also attracted criticism about being partial towards big companies. RBI deputy governor K.C. Chakravarty, in a recent speech, raised an important question: Are small and marginal borrowers discriminated against by the banks? An economic downturn is likely to affect smaller companies more adversely than larger ones, so smaller borrowers should be having a greater share in restructured accounts. The data with RBI does not show this.
The soft corner which Indian banks have for large companies is also highlighted by a recent report by Credit Suisse Group AG, which pointed out that the exposure to 10 large industrial groups constitutes 13% of the entire Indian banking system’s loan assets.
In the absence of effective laws on insolvency, many firms who can’t repay their debts for reasons beyond their control remain orphans, and banks are forced to restructure their loss-making assets at a cost. The Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA), 1985, enabled sick firms to approach the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) to help them revive.
Under the SICA provisions, a company is classified as sick if it has a track record of erosion of net worth over five years. But what is required is a law, which can detect that a company is going through financial difficulty in earlier, and then attempt to revive it. The lack of infrastructure has resulted in bankruptcy procedures under BIFR to take a long time, something which needs to be addressed. Also, steps should be taken to prevent misuse of BIFR provisions by companies that, under section 22 of SICA, seek immunity from creditors after cooking their accounts; this has plagued efficiency at BIFR for long.
Also asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), which were established by the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, to acquire, manage and recover illiquid loans or NPAs from banks have failed to take off in a big way. The appetite of Indian investors for securities issued by ARCs is weak, and remains limited to short-tenor papers and those with high ratings. A major hindrance in the way of development of securitization in the country has been high stamp duties. Moreover, the Indian credit markets are closely regulated and loans typically don’t trade on a secondary market, unlike developed countries.
These laws are also tilted in favour of creditors whose major goal remains short term, which is to recover their debts. What is needed are sound insolvency laws in our country along the lines of chapter 11 in the US, which can protect firms and help them adopt a suitable strategy to emerge out of financial difficulties.
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