Domestic rating agency, Care ratings in its latest report has said that the banking sector’s gross non-performing assets (NPA) almost doubled to 8.5% in first quarter of this fiscal as against 4.6% a year ago, driven by surging bad assets of state-run lenders. However, the rating agency did not quantify the bad loans in absolute terms.
The report stated that the spike was largely due to the doubling of NPAs at public sector banks to 10.4% compared to 5.3% in June 2015. Private sector lenders witnessed their NPA ratio increasing to 3% from 2.1% a year ago. It further stated that the state-run banks have been under pressure to identify and provide for their NPAs, which could last for another one to two quarters. Report also added that the high NPAs and consequent provisioning is an ‘area of concern’ that will impact their profitability going forward.
Many state-run lenders reported net losses in the June quarter, with market leader State Bank of India (SBI) turning in a 32% drop in net income, while private sector banks' net collectively fell just 2.6%. Rating agency said that the government's plan to raise money by offloading stakes in banks, profit is an important issue. High NPAs and low profitability would not augur well if the government is working towards lowering its stake in these banks to 51%. However, it termed the recognition of NPAs as a positive step in the long term as higher provisioning makes the state-run lenders better prepared to face the market.
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