Satabdi
Gantait had her salary account and Fixed Deposit in Yes Bank. She recounts the initial
panic and the relief after the bank resumed normal operations
I can’t tell you how relieved I am after knowing that Yes Bank is operational again, thanks to timely intervention by the RBI and Centre government. I have my salary account in Yes Bank and when the news of Yes Bank collapse came, about a fortnight ago, many of us didn’t know what to do. I also had Fixed Deposits (FD) in the bank so I was doubly worried as to what fate my savings has in store.
Given that it was the beginning of the month, I was supposed to make payments to several people as well. It was chaos. Thankfully, I had another account in a different bank but it is horrifying to think about those who had all their savings in Yes Bank.
I myself had been following news about the
economy and various banks on and off, but in these times when there is so much
of information flowing in all the time, one doesn’t know whom to trust and whom
not to. Also, many a times one isn’t completely aware of what a particular step
from the government means. We are dependent on news channels to decode
information for us.
Following the news of Yes Bank collapse, the
UPI (an online payment interface) on my phone stopped functioning. I teach
interior designing to students in Kolkata and fashion is an industry where
large amount of money exchanges take place. So undoubtedly there was panic in
our group.
Thankfully, Union Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman came out and assured ordinary people depositors that their money was
safe. That people didn’t need to panic and that the government was doing all it
can to rectify the situation as quickly as possible. This was reassuring but we
kept our fingers crossed. I wonder why we need to reach a situation like the Yes
Bank one in the first place that ordinary people begin to panic!
I suffered during demonetisation as well and for a moment (at the beginning of the crisis around 15 days ago) I thought 2016 was going to play itself out once again in 2020.
I run an interior design firm and had to make and receive large amount of money. Both depositing and withdrawing money had become extremely difficult back then. Thankfully this time things are different. I hope no more banks reach such a state, so that ordinary people don’t worry whether they will be able to withdraw and use their own hard-earned money.
The recent debacle of the Indian private sector bank,
Yes Bank, whose board was suspended and superseded by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI), once again brings into sharp focus the extent and depth to which crony
capitalism continues to prevail in the country’s economy.
Yes Bank was founded in 2004 by Rana Kapoor and his brother-in-law, the late Ashok Kapur. Early this month, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), registered a criminal case against Kapoor, who was the CEO of Yes Bank; Dewan Housing Finance Ltd. (DHFL), a non-banking financial services company; and its promoter, Kapil Wadhawan. The CBI charged them with criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The allegations are that between April and June 2018, Yes Bank subscribed or invested Rs 3700 crores in DHFL’s short-term debentures. This financial assistance subsequently turned into non-performing assets as the bank was unable to recover the funds. More seriously, the allegations are that in lieu of the amount extended to DHFL, a company, Do it Urban Ventures, promoted by Kapoor’s three daughters, and received kickbacks in the form of loans amounting to around Rs 600 crores. In other words, the CBI alleges that Kapoor and DHFL entered into a conspiratorial quid pro quo: DHFL got the assistance (that have now turned into bad loans) and he and his family benefited from the kickbacks.
Rana Kapoor in custody of Enforcement Directorate
The agency has alleged that Rana Kapoor extended
financial assistance to DHFL to get substantial undue benefit for himself and
his family members via companies held by Kapoor and his family. On March 5,
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, announced that it had
suspended and superseded the board of Yes Bank. Customers were prevented from
withdrawing more than Rs 50000 from their accounts and rating agencies
downgraded the bank’s core bonds.
Yes Bank’s debacle turns the focus sharply on the
continued prevalence of crony capitalism in India’s economy: an unholy nexus
between banks, financial institutions (FIs), and business enterprises. Banks
and FIs—and not only privately owned ones—in India are known to have cosy
relationships with promoters of large and medium sized Indian companies and
quid pro quo arrangements of the sort that Kapoor and Yes Bank are accused of
are not uncommon. Rather, it is quite the opposite. Examples of misuse of bank
funds are galore in the Indian economy.
One high-profile case is that of liquor baron Vijay Mallya who is currently in the UK while the Indian government is trying to get him extradited so that he can face investigation into charges levelled against him. Mallya is accused of misusing around Rs 9,000 crore (US$1.3 billion), which are loans that his companies, including a now-defunct airline that he started, took from 17 Indian banks. The allegations are that Mallya siphoned off these funds to 40 other companies that he controls around the world.
In another headline-grabbing case in 2018, the CBI
began an investigation into Nirav Modi, a high-profile Indian jeweller, on
allegations that he and his partners defrauded the Punjab National Bank of Rs
28,000 crore, which he is alleged to have siphoned overseas by fraudulently
obtaining letters of undertaking for making payments to overseas suppliers.
Modi is absconding and is believed to be in the US even as the Interpol is
looking for him.
More recently, in December 2019, another high-profile
executive, Jagdish Khattar, the former managing director of Maruti Udyog Ltd.,
India’s largest carmaker, was booked by the CBI for charges against him of
cheating the Punjab National Bank of Rs 110 crore. That case is still being
investigated although Khattar has not been arrested.
These few examples are really the tip of the iceberg.
Nefarious deals between banks and influential entrepreneurs abound in India.
Not long ago, a private sector steel company was embroiled in a similar
controversy when a partly government-controlled financial institution was
believed to be lending it vast sums of money although past loans taken by the
company had turned into non-performing assets.
The curious paradox about such cases is that in many
of the cases, the authorities, including investigative agencies, wake up when
it is already too late. In Yes Bank’s case, the RBI has been issuing warnings
about financial inconsistencies in the bank’s reports. Doubts about Mallya’s
ability to run his airline and manage his finances have been floating around
long before he fled India.
The other, more disheartening, aspect of all this is
the hagiographical treatment that the media have meted out to some of these
controversial promoters and businessmen. Vijay Mallya, now 64, has had
countless laudatory cover stories or “puff pieces” about him. Rana Kapoor, an
aggressive publicity seeker, has found similar success with the Indian media.
Jagdish Khattar was routinely lionised by India’s business press during his
stint as managing director of Maruti between 2002 and 2007.
The truth is that India’s institutions, particularly
in the financial sector, are prone to misuse—either because of the clout of
powerful corporate borrowers or because of complicit bank officials, or both.
India’s government has various laws, organisations and agencies that have been
established to prevent financial fraud. Yet, with regular frequency, shocking
instances of brazen misuse of the financial system come to light. What is needed
is a will to break the cronyism that plagues the nexus between financiers and
their corporate clients. And when frauds come to light, swift dispensation of
justice could work as a deterrent.
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