RBI urged to provide names of big loan defaulters

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Reserve Bank of India to disclose the list of big loan defaulters it had sent to banks for resolution. The CIC’s directive came while deciding on a plea by Lucknow-based activist Nutan Thakur, who had based her RTI application on some media reports that RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya in a lecture in 2017 had said accounts of some loan defaulters have been sent to banks for resolution.

“The IAC (internal advisory committee) has recommended that the Reserve Bank of India should initially focus on stressed assets which are large, material and aged, in that they have eluded a viable resolution plan despite being classified as NPAs (non-performing assets) for a significant amount of time,” Acharya had said.

The RBI had accordingly directed banks to file insolvency applications against 12 large accounts comprising about 25 per cent of the total NPAs, he had said. “The Reserve Bank has now advised the banks to resolve some of the other accounts by December 2017; if the banks fail to put in place a viable resolution plan within the timelines, these cases also will be referred for resolution under the IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code),” the RBI deputy governor had said.