State Bank of Hyderabad has stepped up efforts to rein in Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the present quarter by rolling out one-time settlement offers for agricultural products, among others.
“I am quite optimistic about the outcome of our ongoing efforts to tame NPAs in the current quarter,” Santanu Mukherjee, SBH Managing Director, told BusinessLine here.
The bank had tightened its NPA management in the recently ended September quarter as well. The gross NPAs declined from ₹6,174 crore in June 2014 to ₹5,654 crore in September 2014. The net NPA ratio reduced from 3.37 per cent to 2.87 per cent.
“An asset-tracking centre is now operational in the bank to make follow-up calls for recovery,” Mukherjee said. Frequent recovery camps are also being conducted.
The bank is also utilising the services of recovery and resolution agents to tackle ‘hardcore’ NPAs. Mukherjee said his bank had recently cut rates on deposits and added that rates on advances could also be cut.
“The quantum of credit pick-up will have a bearing on this,” he added.
The corporate credit off-take was sluggish due to over-all slowdown in economy, stress in certain industries like infrastructure, cement, iron and steel, mining, textile and technology. “We expect this will improve towards last quarter of current financial year,” Mukherjee said. As a result, current business focus of the bank on is retail and MSME credit, among others.
Tech focusThe bank is also ramping up its focus on technology products. It is planning to install 22 hi-tech customers service centres called e-Connect in addition to the three centres which are already functioning.
“A generic e-payment model for all corporates who want to collect payments from their customers online will be launched. This is called the State Bank Collect Multi-Option Payment System,’’ Mukherjee said.