State-run United Bank of India is likely to appoint a firm to conduct a forensic audit of its accounts for ?proper identification? of non-performing assets (NPAs).
?There are certain issues. Certain gaps are there in the system, in the software. And for that we are facing difficulties in identifying some of the accounts. The system is not identifying some credit cards which the bank had issues earlier,? bank?s executive director Sanjay Arya told FE.
?We are going to appoint a firm to conduct a forensic audit of our accounts. It is for the proper identification of NPAs,? he said.
The Kolkata-based bank had reported a loss of R489.47 crore for the July-September quarter of this fiscal on account of an unprecedented rise in its non-performing assets.
As of September 30, 2013, the banks? gross NPAs soared to 7.52% of gross advances from 3.88% a year ago. Its net NPAs rose to 5.39% from 1.95%.
Arya denied that the Reserve Bank of India is already conducting a forensic audit of the banks? accounts. ?The RBI is conducting a special audit of our accounts under RBS (risk base supervision). United Bank has been selected by the RBI out of 30 banks taken in the first phase of RBS. It is being done on a trial basis,? he said.
?RBI inspectors came to our headquarters for the special audit and could come again for the RBS,? he added.
Meanwhile, the bank said it has formed recovery hubs at strategic centres and has reduced NPAs by R800 crore and would shortly upgrade another R600 crore. ?It is well capitalised with a capital adequacy of 9.48%. It was the first bank to raise Tier II (Basel III compliant) capital of R500 crore during the current fiscal. It will get R700 crore of capital from the government of India, shortly,? the bank said in a release.