The number of wilful defaulters in nationalised banks has increased by over 60% to 8,582 in five years to March 2019, the government said. By the end of 2014-15 fiscal, the figure stood at 5,349, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in LS. A wilful defaulter is an entity or a person that has not paid the loan back despite the ability to repay it.