India's public sector banks cut write-offs nearly 40% recoveries up
India's public sector banks have seriously stepped up their game: bad loan write-offs dropped by nearly 40% in five years, from ₹1.15 lakh crore in 2021-22 to ₹70,528 crore in 2025-26.
At the same time, they managed to recover a lot more money from these bad loans, with recoveries rising from ₹24,739 crore to ₹42,889 crore.
Recovery to write-off ratio 60.8%
The recovery-to-write-off ratio jumped from 21.4% to 60.8%, meaning banks are clawing back way more of what was lost.
There's also been a big shift: most write-offs used to be for large industries (90% in 2022-23), but now individuals, MSMEs, and farmers make up the majority.
SBI led the pack by cutting its own annual write-offs by over ₹6,000 crore since 2022-23.
As Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary put it: writing off a loan doesn't let borrowers off the hook. Banks are still working hard to get that money back.