Skip to main content

Reserve Bank extends 'rest' period for auditors to 6 years

By

Central bank has extended the rest period of statutory auditors to at least 6 years
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday criticised private and foreign banks for appointing the same set of auditors alternatively after mandatory rest of two years, as such practice establishes a “comfortable relationship that may lead to compromise in strict adherence to audit principles.
As per the extant rules, a statutory auditor has to be appointed for a period of four years and then there should be a rest of two years. Now the central bank extended the rest period to at least six years.
According to RBI, in some cases in private and foreign banks, the same audit firm was reappointed after a gap of two years’ rest. In a few other banks, the immediately preceding statutory auditor firm was appointed on completion of the four-year tenure of the current statutory auditor.
“The statutory central audit responsibility in such banks thus remained confined to two audit firms which were appointed on a cyclical basis,” said RBI in a notification on its website.
Criticising these banks, the central bank said the rest and rotation policy in the appointment of auditors have been mandated so that books are looked at afresh, “as a new team is likely to examine the issues in a bank from a different perspective.”
In order to make the banks follow the policy in letter and spirit, the central bank said that an auditor, after completion of its four-year tenure in a bank “will not be eligible for appointment as SCA of the same bank for a period of six years.”
The central bank’s directive assumes importance in the light of wide divergence found in the books of some private sector banks, which reported much lower NPA in their books for FY 16 than what the central bank auditors later found. If the divergence found is more than 15 per cent from RBI’s perspective, it is now mandatory than banks disclose the information in the annual report.
The Business Standard, New Delhi, 28th July 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RBI deputy governor cautions fintech platform lenders on privacy concerns during loan recovery

By
  India's digital lending infrastructure has made the loan sanctioning system online. Yet, loan recovery still needs a “feet on the street” approach, Swaminathan J, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said at a media event on Tuesday, September 2, according to news agency ANI.According to the ANI report, the deputy governor flagged that fintech operators in the digital lending segment are giving out loans to customers with poor credit profiles and later using aggressive recovery tactics.“While loan sanctioning and disbursement have become increasingly digital, effective collection and recovery still require a 'feet on the street' and empathetic approach. Many fintech platforms operate on a business model that involves extending small-value loans to customers often with poor credit profiles,” Swaminathan J said.   Fintech platforms' business models The central bank deputy governor highlighted that many fintech platforms' business models involve providing sm
Post a Comment
Read more

Credit card spending growth declines on RBI gaze, stress build-up

By
  Credit card spends have further slowed down to 16.6 per cent in the current financial year (FY25), following the Reserve Bank of India’s tightening of unsecured lending norms and rising delinquencies, and increased stress in the portfolio.Typically, during the festival season (September–December), credit card spends peak as several credit card-issuing banks offer discounts and cashbacks on e-commerce and other platforms. This is a reversal of trend in the past three financial years stretching to FY21 due to RBI’s restrictions.In the previous financial year (FY24), credit card spends rose by 27.8 per cent, but were low compared to FY23 which surged by 47.5 per cent. In FY22, the spending increased 54.1 per cent, according to data compiled by Macquarie Research.ICICI Bank recorded 4.4 per cent gross credit losses in its FY24 credit card portfolio as against 3.2 per cent year-on-year. SBI Cards’ credit losses in the segment stood at 7.4 per cent in FY24 and 6.2 per cent in FY23, the rep
Post a Comment
Read more

India can't rely on wealthy to drive growth: Ex-RBI Dy Guv Viral Acharya

By
  India can’t rely on wealthy individuals to drive growth and expect the overall economy to improve, Viral Acharya, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday.Acharya, who is the C V Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern), said after the Covid-19 pandemic, rural consumption and investments have weakened.We can’t be pumping our growth through the rich and expect that the economy as a whole will do better,” he said while speaking at an event organised by Elara Capital here.f there has to be a trickle-down, it should have actually happened by now,” Acharya said, adding that when the rich keep getting wealthier and wealthier, they have a savings problem.   “The bank account keeps getting bigger, hence they look for financial assets to invest in. India is closed, so our money can't go outside India that easily. So, it has to chase the limited financial assets in the country and
Post a Comment
Read more