Big banks brace for Bathla fallout as administrators struggle for cash

Major banks will be drawn into the $3.4 billion collapse of property developer Bathla as contagion spreads to more than 1000 subcontractors and their workers who bank with the country's four biggest lenders, pushing up bad debts ahead of full-year results scheduled for early November. While the major banks have avoided lending directly to Bathla, they count small and medium-sized construction businesses now owed hundreds of millions of dollars by the collapsed developer as customers.