Brookings India hosted a Development Seminar on “Non-Performing Assets & the Slow Path to Bank Reform” with Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Senior Visiting Fellow, Brookings India & Associate Professor of Finance and Executive Director for the Centre for Analytical Finance at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India.

Abstract: The Government of India’s recent announcement providing for a large recapitalisation of its banks, a consequence of deeply problematic loan quality, impacts the Government’s fiscal consolidation. In this seminar, Prof. Subramanian analyses the loan quality malaise, proposes a set of reform measures which are sensitive to behavioural and governance issues, examines the merits of other reform measures which have been proposed, and assesses the impact of certain recent interventions by the Government. He finds that short of privatisation, a fundamental reordering of the relationship between the Government and its banks is needed, if these problems are not to periodically resurface.

Bio: Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Brookings India. He is also Associate Professor of Finance and Executive Director for the Centre for Analytical Finance at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India. A leading expert in banking, corporate governance and economic policy, he has served on expert committees on Corporate Governance for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and on Governance of Banks for The Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He obtained his MBA and Ph.D. in finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

Discussant: Prof. Ila Patnaik, Professor at National Institute of Public Finance & Policy.