Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has given top priority to cut down its non-performing assets, which rose to 9.1% of total advances after the takeover of Global Trust Bank (GTB) last year. OBC Chairman K N Prithviraj said "the gross NPAs has shot up from 5.9% in 2003-04 to 9.10% last fiscal after the merger of ailing GTB with OBC. We want to bring it down by 2-3% this fiscal," . OBC's gross NPAs is currently at Rs 2,492 crore, a large portion of which came from the erstwhile GTB. OBC, which had the distinction as the first PSU bank to wipe out is net NPAs in 2003-04, accumulated bad assets worth Rs 300 crore or 1.3% of advances last fiscal. Apart from evoking the Securitisation Act, OBC is looking to write off bad loans and settling smaller dues through Lok Adalats. "We expect to recover Rs 500 crore of NPAs this fiscal through a slew of measures," Prithviraj said. Prithviraj said the bank would not treat all the defaulters as "criminals or thieves". The bank will give an opportunity to defaulters to pay up when they are in position to do so.
