Empowering bankers

Prevention of Corruption Act must be amended fast

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s resolve to empower bankers to take tough decisions without fear of reprisal from the government or its enforcement agencies should be welcomed. Public sector bank chairpersons have been caught between rising bad loans – a staggering 8.6 per cent of advances and rising despite many restructuring attempts – and challenging compliance norms under the Basel standards on the one hand and the stifling lack of freedom to take decisions on the other. The arrests of IDBI bank executives by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over a Rs 900-crore loan default by Kingfisher Airlines is unlikely