Most bankers expect bad loans to worsen: Survey.Bad loans in the country is estimated to be over Rs 2.6 lakh crore

Most bankers expect bad loans to worsen: Survey.Bad loans in the country is estimated to be over Rs 2.6 lakh crore

  

The banking sector’s prospects do not look all that good with a majority of lenders expecting the bad loan situation to worsen in coming years. There is lack of faith in stressed borrowers who, bankers believe, are misusing the restructuring facility and are responsible for the problem in bank loans.

Describing the bad loan situation as a ‘crisis’, management consultancy firm Ernst & Young said that 72% of the respondents in a lender survey feel the situation was set to get worse, while only 15% feel that the slippage of loans into default category would get arrested due to measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India.

The findings gain significance considering that the total size of bad loans in the country is estimated to be over Rs 2.6 lakh crore with the top 30 defaulters accounting for close to Rs 95,000 crore. This does not take into account restructured loans. Stressed loans, which are a combination of bad loans and restructured loans, now account for over 11.1% of all bank advances.