State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Khara on Saturday said there are no concerns over the bank’s unsecured loan portfolio and the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in the segment is at just 0.69 per cent.
The comment from SBI comes even as Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, last month, raised concerns over very high growth in certain components of personal loans.
“For us, it (unsecured loans) is not a concern at all. I have said it in the past and I still maintain my stance that our unsecured book is better than secured loans,” Khara said when asked about the outlook on unsecured loans.
What he said?
- He said the bank’s unsecured loan book is about Rs 3.2 lakh crore, with gross NPA only at 0.69 per cent.
- Close to 86 per cent of the bank’s unsecured loans is given to those who are maintaining a salary account with it and they are all from the government sector.
- If armed forces, para military and public sector entities are included, then the number goes up to 94 per cent, he said.
- Many analysts have said that there are risks of increase in delinquencies in the unsecured retail loans, especially in below Rs 50,000 category of loans. Khara clarified that SBI doesn’t have any unsecured loans below Rs 50,000.
