India's PNB targets record-low bad loan ratio on higher debt recoveries, CEO says
MUMBAI (Reuters) -Punjab National Bank (PNB), India's second-largest state-run lender by assets, aims to recover more soured loans this year, leading to a record-low gross bad loan ratio, a key asset quality metric, CEO Ashok Chandra said on Thursday. The New Delhi-based lender is targeting bad loan recoveries worth 160 billion rupees ($1.89 billion) this financial year, an eleven-fold increase over the 14.36 billion rupees recovered in 2024-25, Chandra told Reuters in an interview. That would help lower its gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio to under 3% by the end of 2025-26, which would be PNB's lowest on record.