Pursuits

Billionaire’s Fund Says India Bad Loan Battle to Outlast Rajan

  • Indian banks face 2017 deadline and scrutiny over legacy loans
  • Pricing gap for soured loans expected to narrow: Sriniwasan
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The head of a credit fund controlled by Indian billionaire Uday Kotak said the government’s push to rid banks of bad loans will outlast the departure of a central bank governor who battled the problem.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who set a deadline for Indian lenders to clean up their soured debt by March 2017, leaves office in early September. The banking industry’s gross bad-loan ratio jumped to a 13-year high of 7.6 percent at the end of March, underscoring a key challenge for the next central bank head.