In banking, we have multiple reasons to don our professional hats with pride. Non-performing assets (NPAs) are down, credit growth is robust, and banks are reaping record profits. The credit for the strength in the banking sector largely goes to interventions by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC, 2016) stands out as a landmark legislation that shifted the legal balance in favour of lenders. In India, promoters losing control and ownership of their assets to banks was quite rare. The IBC changed that.
As we celebrate these achievements, we must also accept that loan defaults and business failures are an inevitable aspect of the commercial ecosystem. Policy changes, intense competition, technological