The Sub-Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), which met here on Friday, discussed measures to strengthen the systems against frauds and revisit the framework for early warning signals. The meeting, chaired by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, also discussed measures to promote interest and competition in the stressed asset markets, enhancing the scope of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) to more effectively monitor group exposures, issues relating to credit rating agencies and audit quality. The chiefs of regulatory agencies including Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi, IRDAI Chairman SC Khuntia, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) Chairperson MS Sahoo, Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser attended the meeting. The Sub-Committee reviewed the major developments in the global and the domestic economy as well as financial markets that impinge on the financial stability. In its Annual Report released last month, the RBI said the banking sector reported 6,801 frauds involving Rs 71,542.93 crore till 2018-19, as against 5,916 cases involving Rs 41,167.04 crore reported till 2017-18. Among bank groups, public sector banks reported 3,766 cases of frauds worth Rs 64,509.43 crore, as against 2,885 cases involving Rs 38,260.8 crore. The number of cases of frauds reported by banks increased by 15 per cent in 2018-19 on a year-on-year basis, with the amount involved rising by 73.8 per cent, though mostly related to occurrences in earlier years. The average lag between the date of occurrence and its detection by banks was 22 months. The average lag for large frauds — Rs 100 crore and above — amounting to Rs 52,200 crore reported during 2018-19 was 55 months. Among bank groups, PSU banks, which constitute the largest market share in bank lending, have accounted for the bulk of frauds reported in 2018-19. It was followed by private sector banks and foreign banks, the RBI said in its Annual Report for 2018-19 . Sebi had expanded its probe into the role of credit rating agencies after a forensic audit flagged cases of misconduct by them in rating IL&FS group firms.
