Early detection helps cut NPA accretion to below 1%

THE COMBINED EFFORTS OF GOVT AND RBI HAVE HALVED THE GROSS NPAS SINCE 2018

- Rajeev Jayaswal

NEW DELHI: Early detection of potential defaults has lowered fresh accretion of non-performing assets by public sector banks to below 1% of their standard advances compared to 8.35% in March 2018, the period that saw a surge in NPAs after an asset quality review that unearthed bad loans hidden in their books, according to government data.

After the bank clean-up exercise was undertaken in 2015 --starting with the Reserve Bank of India's asset quality review (AQR) and followed by the government's 4R's strategy -- gross NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) fell to ₹3.02 lakh crore in December 2024 from a peak of ₹8.96 lakh crore on March 31, 2018.