Chennai, Oct 23 (IANS) Indian Bank reported a net profit of Rs 359 crore for the quarter ended September 2019 on increasing income and improving asset quality by controlling loan slippage and other factors, said a top bank official.
Announcing the second quarter results, Padmaja Chundru, Managing Director and CEO, said the bank registered a net profit of Rs 359 crore for the second quarter of FY20, logging 139 per cent growth.
The public sector lender earned Rs 738 crore for the second quarter, logging 72 per cent growth, mainly on account of sale of investments. The bank’s total income for Q2 was Rs 6,045 crore, up by 18 per cent over Rs 5,129 crore earned during the second quarter of 2018-19.
Chundru said the net interest income (interest income less interest expenditure) increased by 8 per cent to Rs 1,863 crore.
The bank has reduced fresh slippage in non-performing assets (NPAs) in Q2 to Rs 741 crore against Rs 1,624 crore in the year-ago quarter.
On the Fitch Rating’s report that the banking sector would face capital shortfall due to systemic crisis in the NBFC sector, Chundru said Indian Bank’s exposure to the sector was static and lending was done only to good NBFCs. “The focus is on strengthening our balance sheet,” she said.
At the end of second quarter, the bank’s exposure to the NBFC sector was Rs 19,990 crore, slightly down from Rs 20,447 crore at the end of the year-ago quarter.
Chundru said the bank was hoping to close the FY20 with a net interest margin of 3 per cent from the present 2.92 per cent.
The bank’s gross NPAs stood at Rs 13,981 crore as on September 30, up from Rs 12,334 crore as on September 30, 2018. The net NPA for the period ending September 30 was Rs 6,613 crore, down from Rs 7,060 crore as on September 30, 2018.
–IANS
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