Mumbai: India’s largest public sector lender, State Bank of India, recovered around one-third of its claims in hundreds of loan accounts resolved over nine years, according to information obtained through a Right to Information application.
The data showed a gap of more than Rs 1 lakh crore between the bank’s claims and recoveries under approved resolution plans.
What Did The RTI Reveal?
According to a Moneylife report, Pune-based activist Vivek Velankar filed the RTI application seeking details from SBI.
The response showed that SBI referred 309 loan accounts to the National Company Law Tribunal or similar resolution forums between FY18 and FY26.
The bank had total claims of Rs 1,49,895 crore in these cases but recovered Rs 49,727 crore through resolution plans.
This left a difference of Rs 1,00,168 crore, representing a haircut of nearly 67 percent on the total claimed amount.
How Much Was Recovered?
The figures suggest that SBI recovered roughly one-third of its claims across the 309 accounts covered by the RTI data.
In FY26 alone, the lender settled 30 accounts carrying claims of Rs 4,928 crore for Rs 1,348 crore. The difference stood at Rs 3,580 crore, implying a haircut of about 73 percent.
The report also presented separate figures relating to loans technically or prudentially written off by SBI.
According to the data, the bank recovered Rs 20,838 crore against these written-off loans, amounting to around 14% of the relevant sum.
However, resolution haircuts and loan write-offs are different accounting categories and should not be combined while calculating losses or recoveries.
What Is A Resolution Haircut?
A resolution haircut refers to the difference between the amount claimed by a creditor and the money recovered under an approved resolution plan.
A technical or prudential write-off concerns the accounting treatment of loans that a bank considers difficult to recover.
Writing off a loan does not legally waive the borrower’s repayment obligation. Banks can continue recovery proceedings even after removing such loans from their active balance sheets under law.
