VisVoice

  If the banks were to be strong and resilient... the governance "practices" have to be sound and robust  The influence, the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) (who quite often appear to forget their responsibilities to the Board as a Managing Director) and the respective managements had on the boards of a few scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) came to the fore, when the hidden gross NPAs, and the unprovided provisions thereon, were brought out in the Asset Quality Review (AQR) conducted by RBI in 2016. The regulator brought out a "discussion paper on governance in commercial banks in India" in 2020. Even after that, non-compliance and flouting of corporate governance guidelines continue to hog the limelight, as evidenced in the episodes of LVB, Yes Bank, PMC Bank, RBL Bank, Paytm Payment Bank, NICB, etc. resulting in take over, change of ownership/ board/ management control and even shut down of operations in one case. The irregularities in VIDEOCON loan sanction/renewa...

  TKV Centenary celebrations on 7th April 2025   The centenary celebrations of Com. (Late) T.K. Velayudhan Nair ,  known to all SBTians by the name ‘TKV’ or ‘ANNAN’ was held in a grand manner across Kerala for the last one year, by the various employees unions, affiliated to AIBEA and welfare associations. Notable among them was 'TKV Foundation, Thiruvananthapuram' started in 1993 by the erstwhile members of State Bank of Travancore Officers’ Association (SBTOA), affiliated to AIBOA.  TKV was the face of the bank employees’ movement in Kerala, with particular reference to State Bank of Travancore, for more than three decades since 1950s (before he breathed his last in 1982). ‘Annan’, Com. Natarajan and Com. Vincent Thomas were fondly referred to as the ‘Trimurthis’ of SBT employees' movement by the ex-SBTians. Together they ensured self respect and job security (Unimaginable in those times) to the then employees of SBT in the period 1960-80. Annan was the torch bear...

  திருமண தினம்: 30ஆம் ஆண்டின் தொடக்கம் மார்ச் 25, 2025. உஷாவும் நானும் திருமணம் புரிந்து 29 ஆண்டுகள் முடிந்து விட்டன. தமிழ் வருடத்தை கணக்கெடுத்தோமானால், யுவ வருடத்தில் (1995-96) கல்யாணம் நடந்ததால், 14 ஏப்ரல் அன்று, 30 தமிழ் வருடங்கள் முடிந்து விட்டன.   எங்களை அறிந்தவர்கள்  அனைவரிடமும்   "முகம் மலர்ந்து,  நட்பு கொள்ளும், உதவி புரியும் உஷா எப்படி ஒரு 'hard nut to crack' (புரிந்துகொள்ளக் கடினமான) விஸ்வநாதனை மணம் புரிந்தாள்", என்றும்  "வைஷ்ணவத்தை தங்கள் வாழ்வுடன் ஐக்கிய படுத்திக் கொண்ட ஒரு குடும்பம் எவ்வாறு சைவ சித்தாந்தத்துடன் இணைந்த ஒரு குடும்பத்தில் சம்பந்தம் வைத்துக் கொண்டது"  என்றும் கேட்க விளைவை, அவர்கள் முகத்தில் கண்டிருக்கிறேன். எனது பதில் (உஷாவின் பதில் கூட) ஒன்றுதான். நெடுநாள் நண்பர்கள் ஆன நாங்கள், இனி இணைந்தே பயணிக்கலாம் என்ற யோசனையை வைத்த போது, இரண்டு வீடுகளிலும் அதனை சந்தோஷமாகவும், மனம் நிறைந்த ஆசிர்வாதங்களுடனும் அங்கீகரித்து நிறைவேற்றி வைத்தார்கள். சில சுவாரஸ்யமான விஷயங்களை பதிவிடலாம் என்று தோன்றியது. அதன் விளைவுதான் இந்த எழுத்துரை....

Gold Loan Draft Directions of RBI Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its ‘draft’ directions for lending against gold as collateral for comments by public. In this regard, I gave a few suggestions in my article in Business Line dated 09.12.2024 (please see box) emphasising that the regulator need to review the existing gold loan guidelines and practices followed by different regulated financial entities (REs). I am happy to share that some of the ‘draft’ directions of RBI, now released are in sync with my suggestions in the above article. (I do not claim that RBI read my article or that the suggestions were given due cognisance by the regulator, as it will be stretching my imagination a bit far).  RBI 'draft' directions that partly reflect my suggestions are 1. Whether the gold loan applications are sourced directly or through third parties like BCs (business correspondents), etc. the gold should be accepted in the branches of the lender only and apprising, valuation should al...

  RBI MPC: If the late Mr.Arthur Buchwald were alive…. (Below created characters and conversations are purely imaginary; might or might not reflect reality; Intention is not to hurt anyone, but to generate a debate. If it hurts anyone, my sincere apologies to him/her) I was   a fan of the late Mr.Arthur Buchwald (AB) (1925-2007) in my younger days. He was one of the sharpest political satirists and was a regular columnist in The Washington Post. His 'imaginary interviews' with the US political bigwigs then, attracted a lot of viewership and at the height of his popularity, across the nations, more than 500 newspapers carried his syndicated column. ( The Hindu was one of them and I read his articles, as my father insisted that I read an English news daily every day, to enhance my vocabulary skills). I was reminded of AB, when I heard the present RBI Governor’s first statement  on 7th February 2025  on the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) review on repo rate and its s...

  Happy SBH Day Today is 5th April. SBHians are celebrating their Bank formation day. I was privileged to be associated with SBH and its staff in my last term, prior to retirement. Eight years have passed by. SBH, which celebrated its 75th year of existence in 2016, is now part of history with a repertoire of its achievements on public display that are embedded in the heart of every SBHian as well. I am proud to share that even now, I am in regular touch with many of the SBHians and interact or share at least a message once in quarterly intervals. Yes, some of us are now retired since then and many are with SBI, carrying the flag of SBH high, through their excellence in performance.  Those days will not come back but are always enshrined in our hearts as pleasant and evergreen memories. Happy SBH Formation Day. Regards V. Viswanathan 5th April 2025

  Want to show better recovery in loans: Use Statistics Normally lies are classified into (i) lies (ii) damned lies and (iii) statistics. The above news item comes under (iii). As per the report, the loans written off  in the last three financial years ranged around Rs.120000 cr. In the current FY, for the 9 months period ended 31st Dec 24, the loans written off is app. Rs.60,000 cr.  Against the write offs in the above years, the recovery from the written off accounts of the previous years (and not the current year) is depicted for comparison.  The recovery in the last three years ranged between Rs.20,000 cr to Rs.40000 cr. (as per the graph). For the current FY (9MFY25), the recovery is shown app. at Rs.23000 cr. (at the lower end of the range) Rajya Sabha was informed that the recovery from written off loans has improved and it is 47.1% for the current FY so far. Strangely, the percentage  of recovery has gone up as the denominator (loans written off) has com...