The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is expecting a 10 per cent growth in business this fiscal.

According to David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Exim Bank’s balance sheet will touch ₹1 lakh crore by March 2019. A majority of the growth is driven by overseas project finance business.

“We are looking at a 10 per cent growth in our balance sheet to ₹1 lakh crore by March 2019. This has been supported by a growth in overseas project finance business,” he told newspersons on the sidelines of the International Trade Conclave, organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.

Under the overseas project finance business, Exim Bank has the largest single-country exposure in Bangladesh at close to $9 billion, to be used over a period of five to six years. It finances railway lines and rolling stock, among others. Besides railways, the bank is bullish on renewable energy, power transmission, agriculture, textiles, and sugar.

Exim Bank extends lines of credit to developing nations and supports the creation of infrastructure projects. The bank also has a significant exposure in Sri Lanka. It has 236 lines of credit, covering 62 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the CIS, with credit commitments of around $23 billion.

Asset quality

According to Rasquinha, non-performing assets (NPA) of the banking system have peaked and are now expected to trend down. The current level of NPAs witnessed by the industry was primarily on account of the “outside environment”. With the external environment “improving”, the asset quality will improve.

“While some NPAs will be part and parcel of banking, you will not see a surge in NPAs. It will come back to normal levels. It (improvement) has already started and, within the next two years, you will see an improvement in NPAs. In fact, the NPA numbers in March 2019 will be lower than that in 2018,” he said.

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