PNB under-reported bad loans by ₹2,617 cr in FY19, finds RBI

New Delhi: Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) under-reported its non-performing assets by ₹2,617 crore for the fiscal year 2018-19, as per RBI's risk-assessment report.

In a regulatory filing on Saturday, PNB said the divergence in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) assessed by the central bank stood at ₹2,617 crore in FY19.

The divergence assessed by the RBI in net NPAs was also ₹2,617 crore for the fiscal.

Also, the divergence in provisioning for bad loans in FY19 was to the tune of ₹2,091 crore.

Consequently, based on the divergence assessed by RBI in provisioning for bad loans, PNB said it would have reported a net loss of ₹11,335.90 crore for FY19 as opposed to a net loss of ₹9,975.49 crore.

The bank said it reported gross NPAs of ₹78,472.70 crore, while as per RBI's assessment the figure was ₹81,089.70 crore.

Similarly, it reported net NPAs of ₹30,037.66 crore, compared to RBI's assessment of ₹32,654.66 crore.

Provisions for NPAs made by the bank in FY19 stood at ₹48151.15 crore but it needed to provide ₹50,242.15 crore.

Recently, market regulator Sebi made it mandatory for listed banks to disclose bad loan divergence within a day of receiving the risk assessment report from the RBI.