BoB, BoI's exposure to South Africa-based Gupta family at Rs 174 cr

Bank of Baroda and Bank of India together have an exposure of Rs 174.58 crore to the South Africa based scam tainted Gupta family of companies, the state-owned lenders in separate stock exchange filings said.

Bank of Baroda said it has a "credit exposure" equivalent of Rs 147 crore in four accounts of the Gupta family group and is confident of recovering the due amount.

Bank of India said it has an exposure of Rs 27.58 crore to the companies and has a back up of over 100 per cent security against the loan.

In its filing, Bank of Baroda said the two of the group borrowers are under business rescue operations and "we are adequately secured and are confident of the recovery of our dues".
 

Further, in the accounts not covered by business rescue, the borrowers have proposed a plan for full repayment of the dues.

"Bank will make provisions as required by the regulators on the reclassification of the accounts.

The bank's provision coverage ratio at 68.03 per cent is one of the highest in the industry," it added.

The other public sector lender said the bank has sanctioned certain credit facilities to Gupta family group in the past as per laid down norms.

"The present outstanding is Rs 27.58 crore and it is backed by more than 100 per cent security," it said.

The two lenders were responding to clarifications sought by the stock exchanges.

Bank of Baroda earlier on on February 7 had informed exchanges that the South African Reserve Bank was investigating allegations regarding compliance lapses at the banks branch there and it is cooperating in the matter.

The stock exchanges had sought clarification from the bank regarding a news report citing its involvement with a particular Indian origin family in South Africa extending to a political scandal there.

The news report referred to the bank's dealings with Uttar Pradesh hailed Gupta family, now settled in South Africa and follows information furnished by the bank to exchanges in August 2017 about paying Rs 54.5 million as penalty that was imposed on its South Africa branch by the local regulator.