SBI's Rs 11,700 cr locked as bad loans with wilful defaulters

Loans worth Rs 11,700 crore given by State Bank of India have been locked up as non-performing assets as nearly 1,160 defaulters have willfully decided not to repay.

The bank had identified 1,164 cases of wilful default with outstanding loan amount of Rs 11,705 crore, as on September 2015, according to data collated by the finance ministry.

Besides, the bank has declared beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines and its guarantors UB Holdings and Vijay Mallya as wilful defaulters in November. Kingfisher Airlines owes Rs 1,600 crore to SBI.

The bank has filed FIR in 13 cases against wilful defaulters amounting to Rs 13.10 crore, it said.

Among its five associates, State Bank of Hyderabad has the highest number, with 197 wilful defaulters as on September 2015, with an outstanding loan of Rs 2,088 crore.

It is followed by State Bank of Patiala with 124 wilful defaulters owing Rs 1,328 crore. Its biggest subsidiary State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur is struggling with bad loans of Rs 829 crore given to 43 wilful defaulters.

State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore have 66 and 65 wilful defaulters in their list, respectively. In absolute amount terms, it is Rs 974 crore and Rs 839 crore, respectively.

SBI's gross NPAs or bad loans soared to Rs 72,791.73 crore at the end of the December quarter as against Rs 61,991.45 crore a year earlier.

The mounting pressure due to bad loans hit profitability of SBI as its consolidated profit plunged 67 per cent to Rs 1,259.49 crore for the quarter on account of higher provisioning for bad loans.

Reeling under stressed assets, state-owned banks' third quarter performance can at best be described as dismal, with Bank of Baroda reporting a loss of over Rs 3,342 crore, the highest from any bank so far.

Faced with huge NPAs, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said bad loans are expected to surge in the coming quarter, which may hit its profitability.