New Delhi, June 25 -- India's 12 public sector banks (PSBs) continue to struggle to recover bad loans despite a unified digital auction platform to seamlessly monetize stressed assets, amid legal uncertainties and a gap between lender expectations and buyer bids. Over the past 22 months, these banks received bids in fewer than a tenth of the 272,000 auctions of stressed assets, and managed to successfully resolve just 14.74% of the cases that attracted bids, according to two people aware of the development and official data reviewed by Mint. PSBs conducted 272,208 stressed-asset auctions through the Bank Asset Auction Network (Baanknet) platform between 1 July 2024 and 30 April 2026. However, only 26,493 auctions drew bids, implying that over 90% of auction listings failed to receive any bid. Of the auctions that received bids, banks resolved 6,736 cases through One-Time Settlements (OTS), while another 6,893 accounts were upgraded, taking the overall success rate to 14.74%. The recovery generated through these efforts stood at Rs.30,046 crore during the period. "The Department of Financial Services (DFS) had asked PSBs to redesign their auction infrastructure with the objective of improving value realization from distressed asset sales," said the first of two people cited earlier, both speaking on the condition of anonymity. Baanknet is the revamped version of the e-BKray platform, which was originally launched in February 2019. Public sector banks began migrating auctions to Baanknet from July 2024, while the upgraded platform was formally launched in January 2025 as a unified marketplace for sale of stressed assets. Emails sent to the 12 public sector banks, Indian Banks' Association, finance ministry, and DFS remained unanswered till press time. Experts attribute the difficulty in selling stressed assets to factors such as title uncertainties and legal risks. "The low success rate in bank-led stressed asset auctions is primarily due to limited investor appetite for distressed assets, legal and title-related uncertainties, and differences between bank valuation expectations and what buyers are willing to pay," said a senior bank official on the condition of anonymity....