Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code: Policy Implications on Asset Quality, Bank Stability and Bank Performance

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the policy implications of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016, which was enacted in India as part of banking sector reforms. The study aims to answer the question: Has the policy helped banks enhance their asset quality, stability, and performance? To determine the effect of IBC on these research variables, we used a difference-in-difference (DID) regression technique. We collected a sample of 924 bank year observations for three categories of banks – public, private and foreign ownership banks for the period during 2010 to 2021. We first analysed the ownership-wise impact of IBC on asset quality, stability and performance. Then, we further investigated the policy’s implications by dividing banks into unhealthy and healthy categories based on their Z scores. In our findings, bank stability and asset quality for three ownership banks (private, public and foreign banks) is significantly different from each other. For overall sample observations, the relationship between asset quality and banks stability is negative and significant. This suggests that a deterioration in asset quality leads to less change in bank stability, i.e. the result confirms banks’ loan evergreening problem during the reform period. The results estimating the impact of IBC on stability of public sector banks was insufficient, except for risk capital. Our findings show that public sector banks have tightened their lending standards in anticipation of potential asset quality deterioration. However, our analysis of the IBC’s impact on unhealthy banks’ asset quality, stability and performance did not align with the policy's objectives. While the IBC policy in itself is passing through several changes in recent, the study’s results can aid policymakers in better assessing the impact of banking policies in India and can be used a reference for future policy formulation. A few related areas where the study results will aid to help are insolvency resolution, developing liquidation and cross-board insolvency framework. This paper is the first effort to estimate the impact of IBC separately on asset quality, bank stability, and performance of banks in India.