In the aftermath of the Hindenburg report, RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das, sought to address concerns on the banks’ financial status by hailing the resilience of the banking system, while steering clear of making any comment about the Adani Group, as per recent reports. Hindenburg had accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation, which prompted questions about the banks’ exposure to the conglomerate’s debt. The governor reiterated the inherent strength of Indian banks, shortly after announcing a repo rate hike of 25 points.
Das apparently said, “The Reserve Bank has taken a number of steps to strengthen the resilience of Indian banks by making it mandatory for lenders to designate chief risk officers and chief compliance officers. We have also rationalized, in the last two years. We have also rationalized, in the last two years, the large exposure to norms.”
“Last Friday, as the Adani rout continued to simmer, RBI had said that it had maintained a constant vigil on the banking sector and on individual banks with a view to maintain financial stability. The RBI has a central repository of Information on Large Credits (CRICL) database system where the banks report their exposure of 5 crore rupees and above which is used for monitoring purposes,” Das reportedly continued.
“Regarding the exposure of one particular business conglomerate, we have issued a statement on last Friday; I have nothing more to add to that. Individual cases and numbers we do not discuss in the public domain,” said Das, while supposedly refraining from explicitly naming the Adani Group.