Co-op bank aims to cut NPAs

M Visvesvaraya Co-operative Bank aims to cut its NPAs to under 5 per cent of advances by March 2005 from about 8 per cent now. The bank is leaning on the RBI-directed one time settlement scheme (OTS), besides rescheduling of corporate debts to bring about this turnaround.

Senior officials, while announcing the bank's silver jubilee celebrations said that the OTS scheme alone will help recover over Rs 3 crore.

They added that the result of the exercise is already being felt as net NPAs were declining. Net NPAs for the year-ended March 2004 was reported at 8.42 per cent of the total advances or around Rs 10 crore.

Total advances then stood at Rs 117.03 crore. However, according to provisional estimates the NPAs fell to under 8 per cent as on September 30, officials said.

Further, the bank is realigning its lending strategy. It targets to lend at least Rs 5 crore to 10 crore by this fiscal end to 30 businesses.

M Visvesvaraya Co-operative Bank is the second largest urban co-operative bank in the state, with Rs 336 crore deposits and 17,522 members.