Bank balance sheets robust as NPAs decline

RBI report says continuing focus on cleaning up books has led to gross bad loan ratios dropping to 13-year lows

- ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU @Mumbai

THE financial position of the banks has stayed robust, marked by the sustained expansion in assets and also liabilities/deposits, while their continuing focus on cleaning up their books has led to the gross bad loan ratios dropping to 13-year lows, a central bank report released on Thursday said.

In the latest report on trends and progress of banking, which shares data up to the September quarter and for the fiscal 2024, and released Thursday, the central bank said, system-wide gross non-performing assets ratio (NPA) of banks slipped to an over-13-year low of 2.5% as of September from 2.7% as of March 2024. Similarly, net bad loans fell to 0.57% of total loans during the period under review from 0.62% as of March 2024, driven by stronger loan-loss buffers.

It attributes the strong balance sheets to robust credit growth during 2023-24. Banks' capital to risk-weighted assets ratio was 16.8% as of September, with all bank groups meeting the regulatory minimum requirement and the common equity tier 1 ratio requirement.