(FE)
Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) recovered a record Rs11,378 crore from defaulters in the first five months of this fiscal, which is more than the state-run lender’s total recovery in the two years through 2017-18, according to the bank’s data.
Desperate to return to profitability and avoid featuring on the Reserve Bank of India’s watchlist after record losses last fiscal, mainly due to the Rs14,357-crore fraud involving jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, PNB has stepped up efforts to get back money from defaulters. It had made a recovery of Rs5,618 crore in the entire 2017-18 and Rs 5,643 crore in the previous year.
While the bank has set up a dedicated stressed asset vertical this fiscal and deployed as many as 3,000 employees to pursue recovery from various defaulters, its unprecedented efforts were duly bolstered by the emergence of the Insolvency and the Bankruptcy Code (IBC). PNB was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the acquisition of debt-laden Bhushan Steel by the Tatas through the insolvency process, as it received Rs 3,081 crore. It recovered almost `335 crore from Electrosteel and Rs 110 crore from Monnet Ispat through the IBC.
