India’s banks are under pressure for two reasons. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank, is forcing lenders to acknowledge the full extent of their non-performing assets (NPA); and the banks will need to meet International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Basel III capital requirements by March 2019.
Public sector banks, which tend to have the highest NPA ratios and the lowest capitalisations in the industry, are struggling. But as chairman of State Bank of India (SBI) – the largest Indian lender by total assets and Tier 1 capital – Arundhati Bhattacharya is in a strong position.
