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MUMBAI, India — The arrest of an Indian banker amid probes into lending violations looks set to prompt tighter loan approvals that may deepen the worst credit slowdown since 2009.
Federal investigators apprehended the chief of state-run Syndicate Bank this month, accusing him of accepting bribes in exchange for providing “financial advantages” to companies. They didn’t elaborate. In a separate case, they started an inquiry against Kingfisher Airlines after it defaulted on debt payments, according to an Aug. 12 exchange filing by IDBI Bank, part of a consortium of creditors to the bankrupt carrier.
Banks in Asia’s third-largest economy are wary of a potential regulatory clampdown, according to SBICAP Securities, leading to stricter checks that may slow credit approvals. Loan growth slumped to 11.6 percent this month, the least since December 2009, after lenders stepped up efforts to lower bad debt from an eight-year high reached in 2013.
“There has been a perceptible rise in apprehension among public sector bankers on possible scrutiny by investigative agencies on past loan sanctions,” Ravikant Bhat, a banking analyst in Mumbai at SBICAP Securities, a unit of the nation’s largest lender, said in an email this week. “It is unlikely the PSBs shall refuse to consider new proposals, especially in a system dominated by them, but significantly higher caution is likely to be observed.”
The finance ministry suspended Sudhir Kumar Jain as chairman and managing director of Syndicate Bank, Financial Services Secretary G.S. Sandhu said in New Delhi on Aug. 4. Jain, who was arrested a day earlier, was found negotiating “for illegal gratification directly as well as through middlemen” in exchange for financial favors, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Aug. 2.
Three calls to Jain’s mobile phone, who’s still in the custody of federal investigators, went unanswered Tuesday.
“Continuous vigilance and continuous intelligence gathering are the two things we are focusing on,” Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor R. Gandhi said in an interview. “A forensic audit may be done when there is a fraud to find the modus operandi.”
The probes into lending irregularities come at a time policy makers are pushing to rein in bad debt and strengthen the financial system. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who highlighted curbing soured credit as among his priorities when he took charge last year, has spurred banks to improve loan recoveries.
The efforts have had some early success. Non-performing debt as a proportion of total advances fell to 4 percent as of March 31 from 4.2 percent in September, which was the highest since 2005-2006, according to the latest RBI figures. Loan recoveries at State Bank of India, the biggest lender, more than doubled in the April-June quarter and tripled at Bank of Baroda, ranked second by assets.
“The increased legal scrutiny is part of broader efforts to improve the asset quality at the banks,” said Asutosh Kumar Mishra, Mumbai-based banking analyst at Karvy Stock Broking. “While these sort of investigations will weigh on the morale of bankers, investors are keenly waiting to see how these measures will address structural issues at the lenders.”
As lenders focus on improving asset quality, the pace of credit expansion has almost halved from an average 22.3 percent in the decade through 2013.
That is heightening the challenge faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who needs to unlock $255 billion of stalled projects to spur investments and revive the economy. Gross domestic product increased 4.7 percent in the year through March, a pace that’s just above the decade-low 4.5 percent in the previous period.
Lending has also slowed as the highest interest rates among Asia’s biggest economies damped demand for credit. RBI Governor Rajan raised the repurchase rate three times since he took charge a year ago to tame price pressures. He left the benchmark unchanged at 8 percent at an Aug. 5 review.
The yield on five-year AAA corporate notes rose 17 basis points this quarter to 9.34 percent, while that on 10-year government debt dropped 20 basis points to 8.55 percent. The rupee declined 0.5 percent to 60.50 per dollar.
Bond risk for Indian banks has rebounded from a three-year low in June. The average cost of credit-default swaps insuring the bonds of five lenders has climbed to 192 basis points from a low of 185 on June 10, according to data provider CMA.
While the federal probes may prompt banks to tighten credit assessment methods, they probably won’t have an impact on the pace of lending, according to CARE Ratings. Instead, loan growth will be influenced more by the performance of the economy, according to the ratings company.
“The recent developments will definitely lead to banks being more circumspect when lending,” D.R. Dogra, managing director in Mumbai at CARE Ratings, said in a telephone interview on Aug. 25. “This is good for the system considering that non-performing assets have been increasing and banks need to hone their credit appraisal techniques. To my mind, this will not have a significant bearing on the growth in credit which is dependent on the overall state of the economy.”