Banks to use monitoring and oversight mechanism to manage pending cases at Debt Recovery Tribunals

Senior officers from public and private sectors banks, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Indian Bank Association (IBA) and senior officers from the Ministry of Finance, at the event (Image - PIB)

Banks will implement an effective monitoring and oversight mechanism for efficient management of pending cases in Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), and should have clearly defined policy for small and high value cases pending in DRTs for optimising the recovery, according to a government statement on September 21.

The decision was taken during a conference of Chairpersons of Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRATs) and presiding officers of DRTs, which was chaired by Department of Financial Services (DFS) Secretary M. Nagaraju.

"While formulating settlement policy, banks to take into account the transaction costs in mind while pursuing pending recovery cases," the statement added.

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Other decisions included following the best practices in some DRTs to be adopted across DRTs for better outcomes, and working collectively to reduce pendency and take measures for optimisation of recovery. This would help in ploughing back the capital stuck in pending cases to the economy for productive use, according to the statement.

The government also said that DRT Regulations 2024, which have number of improved features over the earlier DRT Regulation 2015 to be adopted by all DRTs with an objective to make the DRT process more effective and less time consuming.