Do not fear '3 Cs', FM tells bankers

NEW DELHI: Allaying fears of CBI and other agencies popularly termed as 'three Cs' among bankers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday reiterated that prudent commercial decisions would be protected.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) are commonly referred to as "three Cs". In a meeting with top bosses of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and private banks, also attended by the CBI Director, Sitharaman assured the bankers that a distinction would be made between genuine commercial failures and culpability.

She said that in the recent past there had been concerns and worries among bank officials about investigating agencies.

Worst not over yet, RBI forecasts NPAs will rise

New Delhi: RBI cautioned that the asset quality of scheduled commercial banks (SCB) may worsen next year owing to changes in the macroeconomic scenario. In its latest Report, it warned that there remains an inherent risk of “froth"— conditions that precede a market bubble—building up in the system due to excess liquidity. Citing factors such as increase in slippages and declining credit growth, the bank in its biannual commentary said bad loans of SCBs as a percentage of total loans is expected to increase to 9.9% by Sep 2020 from 9.3% in September 2019. This marks a revision of its projection made six months ago, when it had said that the percentage of bad loans was expected to come down by March 2020.