Objective

India’s banking sector has been facing a large overhang of balance sheet stress in recent times. The persisting deterioration in asset quality has necessitated sharp increases in provisions and for the first time since 1993-94, the banking system as a whole, particularly driven by public sector banks (PSBs), has started registering losses. As regulator and supervisor, the Reserve Bank’s approach to the revival of the banking system has been timely recognition of stressed assets and adequate provisioning to take care of the expected losses. The asset quality review (AQR) exercise carried out by the Reserve Bank identified lot of assets which had not been properly classified and which in turn had led to inadequate provisioning. The responsibility for correct classification of assets and provisioning has to be shared by statutory auditors, who through their audits have to ensure that the regulatory guidelines relating to asset quality and provisioning are properly followed and balance sheets of banks truly gives a true and fair picture of their financial position. The objective of the program is to provide a platform to auditors to discuss the major reasons for divergences in asset classification and provisioning by way of discussion with regulator and supervisor and also share their experiences.