Overseas NPAs of Indian banks on the rise

India’s largest bank sees overseas non-performing assets rise by US$15 million.

State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender by assets, added the fresh bad loans to its overseas loan book in the last six months. It has also restructured about US$20 million worth of loans. The NPAs are significant considering SBI’s total exposure to tourism is about US$150 million.

Analysts said there has been an increase in bad loans from tourism companies since June. They said the SBI’s gross NPAs from overseas must have risen to 1.8% in the December quarter from about 1.4% in the year-ago period.

SBI’s net NPAs from its international business rose to US$243 million in the September quarter from US$178 million in the year-ago period. It had an overseas loan book of US$23 billion as of September.

Other public sector banks that have operations abroad such as Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have seen overseas NPAs rise in the past year.