Syndicate Bank hopes to recover Rs 1,500 crore from NPAs

Syndicate Bank hopes to recover about Rs 1,500 crore from non-performing assets (NPAs) over the next three to six months, chief executive officer and managing director of the bank Mrutyunjay Mahapatra said here Saturday.

The bank is adopting a combination of methods to recover bad loans, he told reporters here.

It has formed a team of 1,500 people meant for taking up the recovery process, in addition to special branches which took up the task. The branches report directly to the corporate office.

''As on September, our gross NPA was 12.9 per cent and net NPA roughly 6.8 per cent,'' he said.

The NPAs in agriculture sector were also rising due to expectations of loan waivers, he said.

''We are expecting that we will be profitable, kind of a breakeven basis by the end of March and start getting profits in June, Mahapatra said.

Currently, the bank has a total business of roughly around Rs 4.80 lakh crore, comprising deposits of about Rs 2.50 lakh crore and advances of around