BANGALORE: Concerned over rising non-performing assets, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked public sector banks to focus on recovery of bad loans, which happen to be high among large corporate accounts.

Addressing a press conference after reviewing performance of PSU banks, he also said that credit disbursal to medium-sized industry has declined and was only "satisfactory" in the agricultural sector.

"Biggest challenge facing the public sector banks is NPAs and their asset qualities," he said, adding that a large part of the meeting with banks' chiefs was focused on bad loans and the steps needed for the recovery.

Pointing out that NPAs were "high in large corporate sectors" and small industries, although they were down for the real estate segment, Chidambaram said banks have been told to focus on recovery.

NPAs or bad loans of PSU banks rose by 28.5 per cent from 83 lakh crore in March, 2013 to 2.36 lakh crore in September last year.  The Minister also said the banks recovered Rs 18,933 crore worth of bad loans during the April-December period.

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