Bank defaulters' names to be made public

NAGPUR: In a huge boost to transparency in banking sector, Chief Information Commission (CIC) has asked banks to make public the details of their loans write off. So far banks were not revealing the names of defaulters saying it would result in breach of trust with the borrower.

The ruling may lead to bank's customers and public knowing who was causing losses to banks and even lead borrowers to demand an equal treatment with defaulters whose loans had been forgiven. A person who makes the query under RTI Act, will now have to be provided all details like name and address of the borrower, names of partners/directors, date and amount of loan written off as well as the name and designation of the official who sanctioned the loan and who decided to write it off.

Observers say that similar data for the loans other than those mentioned in the query may also have to be put on the public domain by the banks though their website or any other medium accessible to the public also.

CIC Satyananda Mishra gave this ruling while hearing a second appeal after a RTI query was refused by Bank of Baroda. The ruling in the first appeal held that the information could not be disclosed as it was held in commercial confidence and fiduciary position. Disclosure of such data is exempt under Right to Information Act.

Quashing this order, the CIC said that the reason “this data does not come under the exemption provisions is that it relates to only those accounts which the authorities had written off. The confidentiality which was implicit in the loan transaction between bank and the borrower came to an end as soon as borrower stopped repayments," he ruled.