India's banking sector grapples with debt

Mumbai

SET up over a decade ago to absorb India's mountain of distressed loans, asset reconstruction companies have done little to recover cash or relieve a debt-choked banking system.

Instead, at a time when regulators are pressing the banking sector to clean up balance sheets, the so-called ARCs are striking mostly paper deals that help lenders extend provisioning by years, camouflaging the scale of their woes.