Banking is a boring business but still the banker should enjoy it as fancy awards and cozy relationships with politicians, Bollywood stars and corporate honchos cannot save them if the job is not done properly. In the concluding part of the series Tamal Bandyopadhyay wonders how long Kochhar would need to wait for her redemption or downfall and atonement.
In the first of a two-part series, Tamal Bandyopadhyay explains why the ICICI Bank's board first rushed to deny all allegations against Kochhar and then took the extreme steps against her.
What connects P S Jayakumar of Bank of Baroda, V Vaidyanathan of Capital First Ltd and Chandra Shekhar Ghosh of Bandhan?
Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'
If indeed the issues involved between the government and RBI are of immense public interest, why not make public the arguments of both the government and the RBI, irrespective of the outcome of the process, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.However, the Act is silent on what happens if the governor's views differ from that of the government. If Patel does not want to budge from his stance the government can either see merit in the Governor's arguments and decide against going ahead with its plan or overrule him. My guess is that the issues raised by the government need to be sorted out not at the November 19 board meeting but between the Governor and the government, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The choice clearly is between prompt corrective action and slow but sure destruction, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'The company's transition from an individuals-driven private firm to a board-driven listed public one will be carried out in a well-thought-through and well-executed manner.'
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das kept the red flag on cryptocurrencies flying, warning that the next financial crisis can be triggered by private cryptocurrencies if such speculative instruments are allowed to grow.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
'At the first board meeting I chaired, I sensed that corporate governance is an issue in this company.' 'I started taking steps that may have aggrieved a few.' 'This has now become a mission I intend to accomplish before I step down.'
Heads of various public and private sector banks on Thursday sought to present a counter-narrative on RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das warning lenders about the perils of extreme risk aversion in the pandemic-stricken environment where credit demand is on the wane.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay offers some unsolicited advice for a government wh,ich came to power, with brute majority and the nation's pragmatic chief money man.
The annual earnings of a non-executive chairman of a PSB is capped at Rs 10 lakh, inclusive of fees for attending board meetings. This is way below the compensation of the chairman of any private bank, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Initially, Gift City was just another real estate project, but all that changed with Modi moving to New Delhi,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'The Indian economy and the Indian financial sector today remain resilient and much better placed.'
It is difficult to say if the banking sector will see the worst behind it by March 2020, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Is the RBI unable to accept with grace that beyond 55, one can have the ability to head the compliance functions in a bank, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Clearly, the depositors of cooperative banks need the maximum protection.'
'Banking is a business of trust.'
'Should the government be in the business of running banks?' 'Particularly when it does not have the fiscal strength to continuously infuse capital into such banks?'
'There are deeper, underlying, forces at work and we need institutional arrangements to guard against them.'
'There are many cases where a company hits the wall because of reasons not under their control.' 'If you do not understand and appreciate that and paint all promoters with the same brush then definitely you are inviting trouble.'
'Those who come from outside are surprised at the relatively small strength of the RBI supervisory cadre, relative to the needs of the country and the needs of the financial sector.'
Tamal Bandyopadhyay details HDFC Bank's digital journey.
'I was shocked by the kidnapping episode. I could have lost my life.'
'No commercial bank will be allowed to fail. There is nothing to worry about.'
'Public sector banks are like an extended arm of the government.' 'They rush to rescue certain sectors or they rush to invest in certain sectors to prop up the economy which the private banks don't.'
Tamal Bandyopadhyay, columnist and author of several books like From Lehman to Demonetisation: A Decade of Disruptions and Sahara: The Untold Story, tells Rediff.com why Yes Bank depositors should not panic and the current crisis at India's fifth largest private lender does not pose any systemic risk.
Most adult Indians should have access to bank deposits, credit and remittance facilities as well as insurance and mutual fund products in the next decade, and technology will play a big role in this transformation, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay discusses his latest book Bandhan: The Making of a Bank at Bandhan headquarters in Kolkata.
'She was either overconfident that nothing will happen to her or she underestimated the gravity of the allegations.'
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