Debt factor: A man checking his mobile phone in front of a State Bank of India branch in Kolkata. The bank said an audit by the central bank showed soured debt was about 232 billion rupees (US3.6bil) higher than what the state-run lender reported for the end of March 2017. — Reuters
MUMBAI: India’s regulator unearthed about US$3.6bil of bad loans in the books of the country’s biggest bank, amplifying questions about distress in the financial sector given underreporting by some rivals as well.
State Bank of India on Friday said an audit by the Reserved Bank of India (RBI) showed soured debt was 232 billion rupees (US$3.6bil) higher than what the state-run lender reported for end-March 2017. The biggest private lender HDFC Bank Ltd had a 20.5 billion rupee divergence, while ICICI Bank Ltd said – without elaborating – that it isn’t required to make disclosures on the topic even as provisions for bad loans climbed. It had reported a divergence in the previous year.
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