No specific information is available regarding outstanding loans of corporate giants which have not been paid back for years. Section 45E of the RBI Act, 1934 and the Banking Laws provide for obligation of a bank or financial institutions to maintain secrecy about the affairs of its constituents.

To improve the health of the financial sector, reduce the NPAs, improve asset quality of banks, and to prevent slippages, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued instructions which stipulate that each bank is to have a Board approved loan recovery policy in place. For information sharing of sanction of fresh loans/ad-hoc loans/renewal of loans to new or existing borrows, a robust mechanism has been put in place for early detection of signs of distress including prompt restructuring in the case of all viable accounts, taking recourse to legal mechanism like SARFAESI Act, 2002, DRTs and Lok Adalats.

This information was given by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Board-approved loan recovery policy mandated to strengthen early distress detection and enable restructuring or statutory recovery measures. Banks are subject to Section 45E of the RBI Act confidentiality obligations while the Reserve Bank mandates a Board approved loan recovery policy, information sharing and monitoring to detect borrower distress, prompt restructuring of viable accounts, and recourse to recovery mechanisms such as the SARFAESI Act, Debt Recovery Tribunals and Lok Adalats to improve asset quality and reduce NPAs.