NPA of banking sector up 1.28% in FY'12

Mumbai: The non-performing assets of the banking sector rose sharply to 1.28 percent in 2011-12 from 0.97 percent a year ago due to high interest rate and slowdown in the economy.

The NPAs (non-perfomring assets) or bad loans of the public sector banks rose to 1.53 percent in 2011-12, up from 1.09 percent in the previous year, said the latest RBI report.

As per the Profile of Banks: 2011-12 released by the RBI, the NPA for India's largest public sector lender SBI alongwith its associates rose to 1.76 percent from 1.49 percent in 2010-11.

SBI's net NPA rose to 2.22 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal from 1.61 percent a year earlier.

However, private sector banks managed to reduce their NPAs in 2011-12 to 0.46 percent from 0.56 percent in 2010-11, it said.

Non-performing assets of old private sector banks increased marginally to 0.58 percent during the year from 0.53 percent in the previous fiscal.

Also, foreign sector banks had their NPAs below one percent at 0.61 percent, down from 0.67 percent in 2010-11, RBI said.

RBI, however, has asked the banks to improve their ability to manage stressed assets.

Banks, specifically public sector, have been reporting a higher NPAs in their books because of continued slowdown in the economic activities on the back of rising interest rate regime.

PTI