New Delhi : In a worsening trend of companies failing to meet their financial obligations, the country’s domestic banks have witnessed an increase of up to 85 % in their bad loans since the beginning of the current fiscal.
The sharp rise in bad loans for banks comes at a time when the number of corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cases has also grown to record-high levels.
In the first two quarters of the current fiscal, banks referred a record number of 74 CDR cases, involving a total debt amount of Rs 40,000 crore, for restructuring. At the same time, at least 35 banks have already reported an increase in their gross NPAs (Non-Performing Advances) from the levels recorded at the end of last fiscal, 2011-12, as per an analysis of the latest quarterly results.
The increase in gross NPAs has been as high as 60 % for lenders like PNB, Allahabad Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank, while the surge has been even higher for South Indian Bank (86 %) in the first half of current fiscal. A few others like Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Corporation Bank have also seen their bad loans grow by over 50 % in this period.
Collectively, these 35 banks have seen their gross NPAs grow by over 28 % or over Rs 32,000 crore in the first half of current fiscal, taking their total bad loans to Rs 1.47 lakh crore as on September 30, 2012, as per an analysis of financial results announced by the listed banks for the first two quarters of the current year.
The data does not include foreign banks and unlisted domestic banks, as their figures were not available.
Among the major banks, the banks that have seen lowest increase of about six per cent in their NPA levels include ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.
On the other hand, public-sector banking giant SBI has seen its gross NPA grow by about 24 per cent to over Rs 49,000 crore so far in 2012-13, while that of PNB has grown by 60.8 per cent to Rs 14,000 crore. — PTI
