'Wilful default cases contested in courts by banks decline'

Even as quantum of dud assets, and allegations of irregularities, keep on increasing, there has been a dip in cases of wilful defaults taken to court by the banks in the three months to December last year.
The total quantum of non-performing assets (NPA) related to wilful default cases in the courts decreased to Rs 1.04 lakh crore by December-end, against Rs 1.11 lakh crore by the end of September, data published by Transunion Cibil said.
The number of cases pending with the courts also decreased over the three-month period, according to the data, which took only loans of over Rs 25 lakh into account.

The total number of suit filed decreased to 8,494 as of December from 9,339 in September.
It can be noted that the data release comes at a time when there has been a spurt in cases of wilful defaults and frauds like the over Rs 12,000-crore Nirav Modi scam emanating from the Punjab National Bank or the Rs 3,695-crore Rotomac scam.
The total quantum of NPAs in the banking system has also gone up and the RBI expects it to go up further in the next few months.

The biggest decline in suit-filed dud asset cases both by number of cases and the quantum of NPAs came from the state-run lenders, which also contributed the most to NPAs.

NPAs being contested in the courts for 19 state-run lenders excluding the State Bank of India came down to Rs 59,742 crore (5,239 cases) from the Rs 65,641 crore (5,899 cases) as of September-end, the data said.
However, SBI registered an increase in the quantum of loans being contested in courts for wilful defaults with NPAs of Rs 28,257 crore, against Rs 27,716 crore as of September.
Private sector lenders, considered the more prudent of the lot in booking loans, also showed a decline in the NPAs being contested in the courts at Rs 13,609 crore, against Rs 14,508 crore by September.

The entire banking sector had 8,266 cases with NPAs of Rs 97,373 crore by wilful defaulters being contested in courts as of December 2016, the data said.
For cases of over Rs 1 crore which are being contested by the banks in courts, the total excluding SBI stood at Rs 1.57 lakh crore in 10,576 cases. For September 2017, the same number (including SBI's data) was Rs 2.68 lakh crore in 17,000 cases.
No reasons were given for the exclusion of data from SBI by the biggest credit information company.