In a strange turn of events, nationalised banks have spurned a Finance Ministry offer to let them choose their own auditors. They would rather have the RBI pick their auditors.

Most nationalised banks are believed to have conveyed to the Reserve Bank that they would rather let it appoint auditors for them instead of appointing their own auditors. 

Last year, the Finance Ministry granted PSU banks the power to decide their own auditors. This drew protests from CAs, who felt banks would appoint auditors who would favour them. That seems to have pushed the banks to ask the RBI to do the choosing. 

Sunil Goyal, Chairman, Western Region , ICAI says, "There are many CA firms in the eligible category, for banks to choose 40 or 50 among them would have been difficult."

Until now, the RBI appointed thousands of branch auditors for PSU banks. The ICAI shortlists about 20,000 CA firms from all over India and forwards the list to the RBI.

The RBI then allots each PSU bank a few thousand auditors to audit their various branches. This ensures wide distribution of work for CA firms, which could have been disturbed, had banks agreed to appoint their own auditors. But now, CA firms can breathe easy.