Taking a tough stand against the practice among banks to make high provisioning that often leads to a steep fall in profits especially the move by the State Bank of India after the change of guard this year the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has asked independent directors on the board of banks to bring good corporate governance practices in banks and ensure consistency in the provisioning policy.

In the January-March quarter of 2010-11, SBI soon after OP Bhatt retired as chairman and Pratip Chaudhuri took over had set aside Rs 6,059 crore as provisions towards pension liabilities, which is 82 per cent higher than the year-ago period.

As a result, SBIs Q4 profits plunged by nearly 99 per cent to Rs 20.88-crore for the quarter against Rs 1,866.60-crore it had posted for the same period last year.

In a meeting of Professional Development Committee under the ICAI held recently, the institute asked the audit committees of banks to ensure consistency in provisioning policy and raise questions when a new chairperson joins and increases the provisioning of even the potentially good assets thereby impacting the profitability of the bank.