Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Feb 13, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Feb 13, 2004 |
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Money & Banking
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Non-Performing Assets PNB sets 2 years to recoup Nedungadi bad loans L.N. Revathy
Coimbatore , Feb. 12 ALL banks are at it - striving to recover whatever possible from loan defaulters. The situation is the same at Punjab National Bank (PNB), albeit on one count - the bank has set for itself a timeframe of two years for recovering the bad advances of Nedungadi Bank, which has since been merged with it. The bad advances have touched a high of Rs 200 crore. In the last 12 months (since the takeover), the bank has managed to reach a compromise on a number of accounts. As many as 155 cases involving Rs 86 crore are pending before the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal), PNB sources say. A look at the asset recovery branch of the bank is a clear indication of the plight of the staff manning it. Huge piles of record (papers) on each desk, bank staff in deep conversation with loan defaulters negotiating a settlement and many more waiting restlessly on the corridor awaiting their turn - a typical sight of a Government department/office. It is not just men. Women entrepreneurs too eagerly wait their turn to get away from the glare of a `possession notice'. Though the response to the periodic recovery camps being organised in each district by the Chennai and Tiruchi regional office of the bank is said to be overwhelming and spontaneous, bank staff are apprehensive of the situation. Flush with funds due to poor offtake of credit on the one hand, bankers say that they were now forced to contend with real estate dealings as well on the other. "While the defaulters are willing to compromise and want to settle their dues, there are no takers for the property," a bank official told this correspondent. The bank has taken possession of some residential properties too, but has not proceeded further in auctioning/disposing off the same. However, in the case of commercial properties, particularly of sick textile mills, the landed properties have come up for sale. Bankers are now literally canvassing - looking for buyers to take these plots. "It is a paradoxical situation," the bank official said. Meanwhile, in the recovery camps conducted this far in Coimbatore, the bank was able to arrive at a compromise in more than 40 accounts.
More Stories on : Non-Performing Assets | Public Sector Banks
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