State-run banks have now been told by Ministry of Finance to discard fast-track promotion policies.

Now bank management will not be able to recruit as per their whims and fancies, they will not be able to promote as per their sweet will or reject as per their whims in the name of merit, and they will not be able to earn wealth in the name of recruitment, promotion and transfers.
 

Provided
 

Unions and Association (who are called as protectors of bank officers but who are real enemy of bankers) stop dancing as puppet of management and decide to extend support the new guidelines , of course after some modification on some issues like lateral movement among banks , bank officers will get justice though late.
 

Hitherto top executives of almost all public sector banks were working as dictators by choosing flatterers for key posts and by giving humiliating treatment to devoted and talented seniors. They say young officers will prove better and hence picked up freshers directly from campus of their choice for the posts in scale II, scale III and above. All officers were young when they were recruited; they forget this while choosing young for promotion. Arbitrarily and unjustifiably indeed, top executives sidelined the matured and experienced officers of two or three decades to serve their vested interest.
 

Service quality of banks depends of inherent culture of employees and his ability to distinguish between good and bad borrowers but not purely on his volume of educational degrees. Experience is more precious than educational degrees so far as banking is concerned.
 

Now government has realized that increasing trend in volume of bad assets is primarily due to bad Human Resource Management. Government has rightly now suggested all banks to discard merit channel which gives scope for misuse of discretionary powers. I hope this policy if implemented honestly will restore the pride of bank officers and help in improving the overall health of banks.
 

After all, Health of Banks depends not on youth power or youth energy, but on mental power, maturity, experience, honesty of officer and ability to assess value of customers while taking lending decisions. Best Lending decisions are best taken not on the basis of financial parameters only but based on creditworthiness of the borrowers and which can better judged by matured bank officer only.