One client will not affect Indian banking system: RBI Governor on Adani row

Chennai, Feb 8 An individual client -- Adani Group -- will not bring down the Indian banking system as the country's banking sector is resilient and strong, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

Queried about the Indian bank's exposure to the Adani Group and the comments of credit rating agencies, Das said the Indian banking system is strong and an individual client will not affect it.

Das said the banks lend money based on fundamentals of the project and not based on the market capitalisation of the company.

He also said the credit appraisal methods of Indian banks have improved.

According to him, two years back, the RBI rationalised the large exposure norms for banks and the norms are being complied.

Adding further, RBI Deputy Governor Mahesh Kumar Jain said the exposure of banks is based on underlying assets and the exposure of the banking sector against shares is insignificant.

Global credit rating agencies -- Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service -- on Tuesday said that Indian banks' exposure to the Adani Group does not present any major risk to the banks' standalone credit profiles.

"Banks' exposures to Adani are not large enough to affect their credit quality materially. We estimate that their exposures to Adani are not more than 1 per cent of their total loans. While we estimate that the exposures are larger for public sector banks than for private sector banks, they are smaller than 1 per cent of total loans for most banks," Moody's said.

Fitch Ratings said the economic and sovereign implications of the Adani controversy remain limited. However, there is a tail risk that fallout from the controversy could broaden and influence India's sovereign rating, with knock-on effects for bank Issuer Default Rating.