A fresh RTI response from State Bank of India (SBI) has put a figure on the scale of loan write-offs involving some of the bank’s largest borrowers.
Between FY2016-17 and FY2025-26, SBI wrote off ₹1,51,857 crore in loans belonging to borrowers who owed more than ₹100 crore each. The bank has recovered only ₹20,838 crore from these accounts so far, equivalent to about 14% of the amount written off.
SBI’s record on loans resolved through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and similar forums shows another large gap between claims and recoveries.
Between FY2017-18 and FY2025-26, the bank took 309 accounts with combined claims of ₹1,49,895 crore through these resolution processes. Resolution plans resulted in recoveries of ₹49,727 crore, meaning SBI gave up ₹1,00,168 crore through haircuts.
Some individual years show just how large these reductions were. In FY2018-19, SBI had claims of ₹48,425 crore across 34 NCLT accounts but recovered ₹26,402 crore, resulting in a ₹22,023 crore haircut. In FY2025-26, 30 accounts involving claims of ₹4,928 crore yielded ₹1,348 crore, leaving a ₹3,580 crore haircut.
The financial figures are accompanied by a separate transparency issue. SBI has refused to disclose the names of borrowers whose loans were written off or settled through NCLT after accepting haircuts. The bank cited provisions of the RTI Act concerning third-party information, fiduciary capacity and commercial confidence.
RTI applicant and activist Vivek Velankar has challenged that position, saying SBI had disclosed the names of these borrowers to him in 2020.
A technical write-off does not necessarily mean that every recovery effort has ended. Banks can continue pursuing recoveries after removing bad loans from their books. But the numbers show the scale of money involved.
For SBI, India’s largest public-sector bank, the disclosure raises a larger question about accountability: when tens of thousands of crores are written off or surrendered through loan resolutions, how transparent should the bank be about the borrowers behind those losses?
Source: Moneylife
