Madam, Don't Send Us to Court, Firms Tell Biggest India Bank

  • State Bank of India working with founders to restructure debt
  • Negotiated settlement “preferred choice,” Anshula Kant says
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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India’s largest lender is finding fear can be a potent weapon in recovering loans.

With 1.8 trillion rupees ($25 billion) in bad corporate debt to clean up, State Bank of India is having an easier time negotiating with founders keen to avoid the nation’s two-year-old bankruptcy law, according to Anshula Kant, a managing director overseeing stressed assets at the lender. That’s because a crackdown by policy makers has convinced business owners that they risk losing their companies once the courts become involved.