RBI reconstitutes Overseeing Committee on stressed assets

Mumbai, June 22 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said it has reconstituted the "Overseeing Committee (OC)" formed to look at the stressed assets of the banking sector.

"The OC will, for the present, have five members, including a chairman, and will work through multiple benches as may be necessary and constituted by the Chairman to opine on the cases referred to it by the banks," the RBI said in a statement here.

Further, the apex bank named Pradeep Kumar as Chairman of its reconstituted OC, whose members will take charge from September 7. The OC's other members are financial experts Janki Ballabh, M.B.N. Rao, Y.M. Deosthalee and S. Raman.

According to RBI, the reconstitution of the OC with an expanded mandate is meant to promulgate the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017.

"The reconstituted OC will work with an expanded mandate to review, in addition to cases being restructured under the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A), resolution of other cases where the aggregate exposure of the banking sector to the borrowing entity is greater than Rs 500 crore," the statement said.

"The circular advising the banks of the above changes and other details of the process to be followed by banks for resolution of identified stressed assets within six months will be issued separately," the apex bank said.

The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 was passed by the Union cabinet and promulgated by the office of the President of India last month.

The ordinance has enhanced RBI's power to tackle the NPAs issue. The Reserve Bank has since brought the OC under its aegis.