Banks to 'name and shame' guarantors

Hyderabad: In an innovative move to recover bad loans, the bankers now focusing on guarantors of defaulted loans by publishing their names along with photos and loan particulars in local newspapers. As of now, the banks have already publishing the photos of borrowers. According to banking sources, most of the public sector lenders have decided on 'name and shame' exercise, the banks would publish the photos of guarantors along with their particulars to be placed on notice boards of the bank branches and even community centres, apart from newspapers. The largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has started publishing photos of defaulters in March 2013, while UCO bank started making public the name, photo and other details of the defaulters. The defaulters may be individual or the corporate entity, the banks have decided to make it public, sources said. Interestingly, when contacted the bankers say that there is no selection criteria for publishing the photos of guarantors or written rule, but we may publish photos if the dues not pay within 15 days of notice. The banks have drawn the spirit from Bangalore Municipal Corporation, which could successfully collect the due from big corporates besides individuals by taking drum-beaters to shame the property tax defaulters. In January this year, it had collected Rs 19 crore from the IT giant Wipro Ltd, however, contested later. SBI began publishing the pictures of its individual loan defaulters in March this year, while UCO Bank has also went public with the name, photograph and other details of a well � known industrialist for non-payment of loans by his company. Earlier, the finance minister told the banks to take action against the defaulters and also monitor on the top non-performing accounts. Accordingly, each bank is said to have closely watching top 30 non-performing accounts and plans to take action against the defaulters.