More than 33 years ago when I joined banking industry, a senior banker, who had come to address the young officers’ batch that I was part of told us “ If you think you are into a cosy place with luxury of having an easy job, you should quit and join some Government Department, because banking is going to remain anything but a cushy job.” Of course, he was speaking in a different context for at that time, 2 years of rural stint was about to become mandatory should one desire elevation to senior roles and some of the Bank branches were indeed located in remote places with virtually no accessibility or infrastructure.
Come circa 2018 and banking indeed seems to be getting extremely tough. While the perpetrators of frauds are merrily ensconced in exotic places such as St Kitts and London, poor bankers, some of whom are leading retired life, surviving on their PF and other retiral benefits in their respective native places, are being summoned for their acts committed by them several years in the past, which would not be in their memory too! In fact, recent arrests of few senior bankers has sent a wave of panic amongst working and retired bankers fearing who next?
Credit decisions are matters of judgment and discretion and unlike small loans, the larger loans go through series of checks, including vetting by Risk Department. If certain executive decisions are not timely taken, the very economics of a project can go haywire. Moreover, for one check applied by the banker an unscrupulous borrower can have multiple surreptitious ways of siphoning of money! It is not to say that all bankers are clean, but then there are black sheep in every profession!
Government, regulator and law enforcement agencies should focus on the fraudsters instead of witch hunting poor bankers, who would have already professionally suffered for bad credit decisions! Let the bankers work and retire in peace. They should be treated as innocent unless otherwise proven through clear money trail and solid evidence.
Arvind Arya blog 