SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya reiterated on Tuesday that the financial sector's struggle with non-performing assets (NPAs) will continue.
“I will say the same thing I said after the quarterly results like you saw profits were affected this quarter, NPAs have increased. In the same way in the next quarter NPAs will increase and profits will be affected. Going forward we will see how to deal with the situation," Bhattacharya said on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.
The October-December quarter results of most state-owned banks were hit by high percentage of bad loans, with almost all public sector banks reporting lower profit or quarterly losses.
The country's largest lender reported a 61% fall in profits, while NPAs rose to 5% of total assets.