INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mumbai: More than 20 lenders on Monday signed a pact aimed at faster resolution of bad loans, officials said, while more could join by the
end of the week in what is the latest bid to cut record levels of soured assets in Asia's third-biggest economy.A government-appointed panel
this month proposed the so-called inter-creditor agreement among other measures after criticism that at times smaller lenders in a lending
consortium were creating roadblocks for speedier resolution.The agreement gives a bigger say to the lead lender in a consortium and allows a
resolution plan to be approved if 66 per cent of the banks in the group agree to it
Dissenting lenders have the option to sell their stressed loans to a company at a discount, or buy out loans to that entity from all other
lenders at a premium."The objective is to use this inter-creditor agreement for faster facilitation of the stressed assets resolution," said
Sunil Mehta, the non-executive chairman of second-biggest state-run lender Punjab National Bank, who also headed the panel."One of the major
banks which signed the agreement.The country's banks had 12.5 per cent of their total loans categorised as non-performing or restructured at
the end of March, according to central bank data.The central bank in February this year withdrew half a dozen loan restructuring schemes and
