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In a first among its ilk, the state-owned Canara Bank has offered to help China recover its huge non-performing assets in the banking sector.
What more, it is also ready to teach Chinese banks how to lend to agriculture and small scale industries -- the loan portfolio which comes under the priority sector lending norms in India.
"I have met a few senior bankers in China. We discussed quite a few issues including working together to recover the NPAs. The western banks can bring in capital and Indian banks can lend expertise in recovering NPAs," said M B N Rao, chairman and managing director, said.
The Bangalore-based bank, which will turn 100 next year, opened its office in Shanghai this month.
Rao, the former executive director of Indian Bank, had played a crucial role in bringing back the Chennai-based public sector bank from the brink of a collapse.
Indian Bank had its net worth wiped out by accumlated losses and piled up huge NPAs in the mid-1990s. It is now back in the black has been planing to tap the equity market.
Rao met senior Chinese bankers, vice chairman and president of Bank of China, Li Lihui and senior executive vice-president of Agricultural Bank of China, Luo Xi in a recent visit to China.
Apart from managing NPAs and directed lendings, he also discussed entrepreneurship development plans with his Chinese counterparts.
According to latest official figures, commercial banks in China reported outstanding NPAs worth 1.28 trillion yuan ($157.83 billion) by June end this year.