“We are very confident that retail stress will get adjusted by June to a certain extent, and by September to a greater extent,” said SS Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank (PNB), in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“MSME stress will continue for some time. We hope to invoke all the options available at our disposal by way of second restructuring window given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and also the ECLGS changes as proposed by the government,” he added.

On slippages, he shared, “The proforma NPA at the end of December was around Rs 13,000 crore. The proforma NPA has been aggravated across the banking industry because of the second wave of Covid-19, and PNB is no exception. In the composition, retail and MSME is more, whereas corporate is not there.”

He expects that by Q3 or Q4, the stress in MSME segment would be reduced.

In terms of PNB Housing Finance’s capital raising plan, he said, “PNB Housing Finance has been trying to raise capital for one and a half years. Even PNB originally wanted to contribute to the rights issue. The company has seen so many situations through the last one and a half years because of COVID-19 that the requirement of capital has increased.”

“The price is decided as per the SEBI guidelines,” Rao further mentioned.

Collections are also improving now. “We expect that retail will do much better. Also, in two-three quarters, we will see good improvement in MSME sector as well,” he stated.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

(Edited by : Dipika)

First Published:Jun 7, 2021 12:39 PM IST