RBI: Bidders for India’s state-owned banks should have deep pockets | India Business News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The potential owners of the soon-to-be privatised government-controlled banks must be financially strong to ensure that the lenders have robust risk buffers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor said.
While the government has the final say in deciding the buyers, from the regulator’s perspective, the bidders should meet RBI’s fit and proper criteria and have enough financial strength to capitalise the banks significantly, governor Shaktikanta Das said in an interview to CNBC-TV 18 on Wednesday.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced earlier this month that the government would privatise two of the 12 state banks in the country without naming the lenders. Indian financial system is stronger after the pandemic than in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, Das said.
Here are more comments from Das’s interview:
* There is no need for another one-time asset quality review as the RBI has significantly stepped up its supervision of banks and the top 100 shadow lenders.
* Uncertainty remains on the extent of new bad loans in the financial system given the ongoing regulatory dispensations.
* Have taken steps to tighten leveraging rules in core investment companies that fall under the shadow lenders’ category.