Bank Board Bureau holds first meet, discusses stressed assets

New Delhi: The maiden meeting of the newly-constituted Bank Board Bureau (BBB) on Friday discussed board-level vacancies as well as recognising stressed assets and resolving issues around them.

The Bureau, headed by former comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG) Vinod Rai, also discussed strategies for recapitalising banks and making them more competitive, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told reporters here.

Sinha, who along with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was part of the initial deliberations of the Bureau in Mumbai, said filling up of vacancies of directors and non-executive chairmen was discussed at the meeting.

"Second, how to better recognise the stressed assets and if there are some hurdles, then how to solve them was discussed," said the minister, who flew down here from Mumbai after the initial round of discussions.

Recapitalising banks and strategies around it also figured in the discussions. "How that will happen, how the government and RBI will work with banks' boards was discussed," he said.

The agenda was also to deliberate on making banks more competitive if they have to compete in this changing financial landscape. "Then, what the role of consolidation will be and how much capital it will require from the government also came up," he said.

The day-long meeting was held at the Reserve Bank's office in central Mumbai.

Besides Rai, Bureau members -- ICICI Bank's former Joint Managing Director H N Sinor, Bank of Baroda's former CMD Anil K Khandelwal and rating agency Crisil's ex-chief Rupa Kudwa -- were present.

Its ex-officio members -- Ameising Luikham, Secretary Department of Public Enterprises, and R Gandhi, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank -- too attended.

The Bureau has three ex-officio members and an equal number of expert members in addition to the chairman.

In the initial phase of today's meeting, Sinha, Rajan and his deputy S S Mundra were also present, but left early.

"Excellent discussions at the Banks Board Bureau meeting today!" Sinha tweeted.