“The issue was discussed in a meeting last month. We have suggested to the RBI that instead of one week, the reporting time should be increased to around a month,” said a senior bank executive aware of the development.
Under the existing framework, lenders need to report fraud to the RBI’s Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) within a week of the joint lenders’ forum (JLF) declaring an account fraudulent.
After the JLF meeting, each lender has to individually get internal approvals to have the account classified as fraud and this takes more than a week, said another senior bank executive. “In some cases, banks also look at other accounts with the same borrower which are operational and standard,” he said.
Under existing norms, in the case of an account with multiple lenders, a forensic audit has to be completed within three months once authorised by the JLF. “The banks have to decide on the account status, classifying it as fraud or not, within two weeks of the completion of the forensic audit,” said the first banker, adding that there have been cases where other accounts of the borrower that are standard also need to be investigated, which requires more time. “A 30-day period will help in accountability and effective fraud risk management.”
Financial institutions, including NBFCs, need to report all exposures of Rs 5 crore or more to the CRILC, a requirement aimed at early recognition of financial distress. Earlier, banks had agreed to report borrowers who wouldn’t cooperate in their forensic audit to CRILC in order to prevent and facilitate early detection of fraud.
As per latest data, 39.8% of gross NPAs of scheduled commercial banks pertain to the top 312 defaulting borrowers. In the past five financial years, banks have recovered an aggregate Rs 6.60 lakh crore.
