Punjab National Bank expects to recast loans worth `40k crore

New Delhi: The country's second largest lender Punjab National Bank on Monday said it expects to restructure loans worth about Rs 40,000 crore as per RBI-approved guidelines, scheduled to be out soon.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier this month allowed one-time restructuring of corporate and personal loans to help entities amid the Covid-19 crisis. "Our total loan book is Rs 7.21 lakh crore at June end. MSME loan book stands at Rs 1.27 lakh crore. Out of this, 14 per cent is under NPA. Now with respect to the book that we are looking at for loan restructuring, a rough estimate what we are seeing is that anything around 5-6 per cent of the credit book may be eligible under the restructuring profile. This 5-6 per cent comes to about Rs 40,000 crore. Major composition of this, of about 50 per cent, would be corporate books," PNB Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer S S Mallikarjuna Rao told reporters at a virtual news conference.

The corporate loans will be restructured based on the recommendations of the K V Kamath committee. "With respect to larger credit books above Rs 100 crore, RBI has appointed a committee headed by K V Kamath. Now they are going to give us the details...whether it would be sector specific or category specific, that we will come to know in next few days," the PNB chief said.