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Indian bankers to meet next week

Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan will inaugurate a conference of Indian bank heads and economists next week. The conference, which comes in the wake of the banking industry being hit by bad loans and technological change, will focus on "Banking in the New Millenium".

It will be held in Delhi from January 15-17. The conference will also feature a burden of the past stemming from the legacy of non-performing assets in the substantially state-controlled banking sector.

"Stringent international capital adequacy norms have posed a new challenge to Indian banks", B D Narang, chairman of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) , told a news conference on Thursday. "The new norms have added to the burden on the banks, which are constrained by decades old regulations calling for lending to small businesses and agriculture", he said.

Narang said that the new international guidelines by the Basle based Bank of International Settlements will be among the topics covered.

The India banking sector's gross non-performing assets or loans that do not yield earnings, amounted to Rs 608.41 billion. at the end of March 2000, as against Rs 587.22 billion the previous year.

Other topics include reforms in banking, e-business and banking, rural finance and governance in public financial institutions. Apart from leading Indian policymakers, the forum is to be addressed by Elisabeth Jackson Moore, Managing Director of Credit Rating Institution, Moody's Interbank Credit Service.

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