Tightening their noose on loan defaulters, banks have decided to ‘name and shame’ the guarantors of such borrowers as well by publishing their photographs and other details in newspapers and at notice boards of bank branches and community centres.
Banks, mostly public sector lenders, began publishing pictures of wilful loan defaulters in newspapers and at other places around the areas of residence of such borrowers earlier this year to induce them to pay up.
This exercise has now been extended to the guarantors of loan defaulters as well as part of efforts to build pressure on the borrowers to clear their dues and Allahabad Bank published one such public notice on Tuesday.
PSBs at forefront
Interestingly, public sector banks are at the forefront of taking such measures, and those already making public the photographs and other details of loan defaulters include State Bank of India (SBI), UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank, Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. So far, the public notices issued by private banks mostly do not contain pictures of the loan defaulters or their guarantors, but they are also actively considering such ‘name and shame’ exercises, a senior banker said.
Allahabad Bank, on Tuesday, published the photographs of two guarantors as well in newspapers as part of a public notice for sale of two properties mortgaged for the loan.
The borrower, a corporate entity, had failed to pay it dues and the total outstanding amount currently stands at over Rs.365 crore.
As a result, the bank has published the photographs of its two individual guarantors, as also the name of a group corporate entity, while inviting bids for the two properties — one in Haryana and another in Mumbai.
State Bank of India began publishing the pictures of its individual loan defaulters in March, 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.
