Large borrowers' loan accounts and bad loans decline: RBI

Chennai, July 2 The share of large borrowers for scheduled commercial banks (SCB) has declined in the recent times while their share in the gross non-performing assets (GNPA) also went down, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

According to the RBI's Financial Stability Report, June 22, the share of large borrowers, those having aggregate fund and non-fund based exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, has been declining in the recent years.

This indicates the reduction in credit concentration and diversification of borrowers.

Their share in total GNPA of SCBs moderated marginally to 62.3 per cent during second half of 2021-22 and remained well below its level in September 2020 (75.6 per cent).

The GNPA ratio of large borrowers has been declining over the last two years to reach 7.7 per cent in March 2022, the RBI said.

As industrial activity revived during the second half of the year, the share of top 100 large borrowers in SCBs' total loan books as well as in SCBs' GNPA increased.

These borrowers accounted for 17.1 per cent of SCBs' total credit and 6.9 per cent of their GNPA, the RBI report said.

According to the report, the asset quality of SCBs continued to improve through the year, with GNPA ratio declining from 7.4 per cent in March 2021 to a six-year low of 5.9 per cent in March 2022.

The Net non-performing assets (NNPA) ratio also fell by 70 bps during 2021-22 and stood at 1.7 per cent at the year-end.

The slippage ratio, measuring new accretions to NPAs as a share of standard advances at the beginning of the period, declined across bank groups during 2021-22.

The write-off ratio declined for the second successive year to 20 per cent in 2021-22.