Indian banks and financial institutions, which had cumulative non-performing assets (NPAs) worth about Rs 1.25 lakh crore by March 2012, are seeking help from a dedicated portal for resolution of their NPAs.
Public sector banks such as State Bank of India, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and others including IDBI Bank and Nabard, have started posting their NPA recovery notices on the portal NPAsource.com in the hope of an early resolution, Mr Devendra Jain, Chairman of Atishya Group, which floated the dedicated portal last year, told Business Line here.
Between March 2011 and March 2012, the cumulative NPAs of banks and financial institutions (FIs) in India increased from Rs 94,000 crore to Rs 1.25 lakh crore, he said. Banks and FIs post their advertisements and notices on the portal, for a fee, expecting a global response to their efforts at resolution unlike newspaper advertisements which have a short-time, local exposure. “We also track the developments on these NPAs.”
A month ago, NPAsource.com opened an office in Dubai where it is in talks with some Gulf-based banks as well for utilising the portal’s services to resolve their NPAs and get their corporate clients to consider buying NPA properties in India. The portal plans to go global with its branches in the USA and Europe, besides New Delhi and Bangalore, in the next one year, and would also appoint franchisees across 30 major cities in India.
Jain said with more banks joining the league and sharing more details on their NPAs, the portal expects that these banks could get better value for their NPA resolutions.
NPAsource.com, that offers as an alternative to the banks and FIs to resolve their NPAs through dedicated service, is the third such portal in India, the other two being BankDRT and foreclosureindia.com. The portal offers a one-stop-solution to all stakeholders including lenders, borrowers, investors and facilitators who can access data on a single platform for resolution of NPAs.
In one year of its existence, NPAsource.com has generated resolutions worth Rs 1,000 crore and expects to increase it to Rs 5,000 crore in a couple of years, he said. Besides, he said, the portal is also helping in the revival of some enterprises through restructuring of debt etc.
The Gujarat Urban Cooperative Bank Federation (GUCBF), the apex cooperative body for the 244 urban cooperative banks in the state, has recommended to its member banks to use the facilities offered by NPAsource.com to resolve their NPA-related problems, Jain added.
The portal currently has more than 1,000 registered users comprising banks, corporates, chartered accountants’ firms, lawyers, tax consultants and real estate brokers. NPAsource.com has registered NPA properties worth over Rs 13,000 crore in the first year of its operations.