SBI Q3 net profit rises 30% to Rs. 2,910 cr, NPA improves; shares surge 8%

The country’s largest bank State Bank of India bucked the trend to post a 30 per cent rise in net profit for the October to December quarter FY15 at Rs. 2,910 crore.

Shares of State Bank of India ended 8 per cent higher at Rs. 307.05, up Rs. 22.65 (or 7.96 per cent) over the previous close.

The profit was driven by improvement in asset quality, higher non-interest income and operating profit.

Net interest income (difference between interest earned and expended) rose by 9 per cent to Rs. 13,777 crore during the quarter from Rs. 12,640 crore in the year-ago period.

Non-interest income jumped 24 per cent year-on-year to Rs. 5,238 crore on account of healthy treasury book. Operating profit grew 22 per cent to Rs. 9,294.5 crore in the December quarter.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total advances improved to 4.90 per cent in Q3FY15 from 5.73 per cent in the year-ago period. Sequentially, it remained almost flat against 4.89 per cent in previous quarter.

Net NPA was 2.80 per cent during the quarter against 3.24 per cent in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Higher provisions for bad loans

However, the profit was limited due to higher provisions for bad loans that increased by 26 per cent year-on-year (up 22.5 per cent sequentially) to Rs. 5,235 crore.

As of December 2014, total advances grew 7 per cent year-on-year to Rs. 12.33 lakh crore while deposits were up 12 per cent to Rs. 15.10 lakh crore.

Though operating expenses rose 5.5 per cent to Rs. 9,720 crore on account of higher other operating expenses, the employee cost declined marginally to Rs. 5,842 crore from Rs. 5867 crore on yearly basis.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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IRDAI slaps Rs. 10 lakh penalty on LIC of India

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has imposed a penalty of Rs. 10 lakh on Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India.

In an order, the authority said the filled in proposal forms were altered by LIC without necessary authentication from the proposers. The policies were also split and more than one policy was issued under a single proposal.

``Tampering with the proposal forms without the consent of the policyholders may affect the policyholders’ interest adversely,’’ it said.

Similarly, LIC had also violated existing norms on investments in other entities in certain cases. A fine of Rs. 5 lakh each was imposed for both these violations. The corporation was also warned to follow regulations in many other areas of business, according to the circular.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Canara Bank scholarship scheme

Canara Bank has launched the Canara Vidya Jyothi scholarship scheme for the current academic year 2014-15. Under the scheme, each rural branch will extend scholarships to six girl students from standard 5 to 10 and belonging to the SC/ST category for pursing studies in a government school. The scholarship amount will range from Rs.2,500 to Rs.5,000, depending upon the class of study. K Kishore Kumar, Deputy General Manager of the bank, launched the scheme by handing over scholarships to six students of the Government VHSS at Vattiyoorkavu here on Thursday.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Dhanlaxmi Bank posts Rs. 17.10 cr profit in Q3

Old private sector lender Dhanlaxmi Bank reported a net profit of Rs. 17.10 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 despite a rise in bad loans.

The bank had a net loss of Rs. 119.37 crore in the same quarter FY14.

The bank's asset quality worsened as a percentage of total advances with gross NPAs worsening to 7.37 per cent from 7.05 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.

However, the net NPAs came down marginally to 4.52 per cent from 4.64 per cent at the end of December 2013, Dhanlaxmi Bank said in a filing to the BSE.

Gross NPA in absolute terms, increased to Rs. 575 crore as compared to Rs. 546 crore at the end of December 2013.

The total income rose to Rs. 345 crore during the October-December period from Rs. 328 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

During the first three quarters of 2014-15, Dhanlaxmi Bank net profit rose at Rs. 25 crore, compared to loss of Rs. 118 crore in the year-ago period.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Bhartiya Mahila Bank eyes Rs. 1,000 cr business this fiscal

Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB), Government-owned all-women bank, hopes to close the current financial year with over Rs. 1,000 crore business. “Our primary target is to expand out footprint across the country, including tier-III towns and un-banked villages. We will close the year with 80 branches,” said Usha Ananthasubramanian, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank.

According to her, the 15-month-old bank currently has 45 branches, and is on track to have 80 branches by the end of the year. It has several branches in the pipeline in different stages of completion.

“Considering that the bank was started from scratch and is taking its baby steps yet, the numbers are quite satisfactory,” she said adding next year BMB will cross Rs. 1,800 crore of business.

The bank’s primary focus is to promote entrepreneurship among women. In this direction, it has signed pacts with beauty salon brands such as Naturals, GreenTrends and Lakme (beauty salons) and funded hundreds of women to own and run franchisee outlets of these brands. It also has Rs. 200-crore exposure to corporates, particularly those run by women.

Today, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) to promote entrepreneurship among youth. Addressing a press conference here to mark this occasion, Ananthasubramanian said under the pact, financial and monitoring assistance will be provided to the under privileged youth in the age group of 18-25, women, ethnic minorities and physically challenged – but with an initiative and a meritorious business idea.

The loan would be for a period of 5-7 years depending on the loan amount, business type and the expected cash-flow generation. Besides, a holiday period of up to 24 months will also be given on a case-to-case basis.

Lakshmi V Venkatesan, Founding Trustee and Executive Vice-President of BYST, said the Trust would offer guidance through mentors with a whole range of innovative business development services.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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Corporation Bank Q3 net rises 16.2% as interest expense falls

Corporation Bank recorded a net profit of Rs.147.20 crore in the third quarter of 2014-15 as against Rs.126.69 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, registering a growth of 16.2 per cent.

Addressing newspersons here on Monday, SR Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said some of the initiatives of the bank in brining down the cost of deposits and increasing income from ATMs have helped improve performance.

Stating that the bank was able to control and reduce the cost of deposits, he said the interest expense on deposits was lower by Rs.111.37 crore in the third quarter vis-à-vis the second.

In Q3, the bank re-priced deposits aggregating Rs.25,000 crore. He said bulk deposits were reduced by Rs.13,000 crore during the period.

Income from ATM transactions rose 50.2 per cent, Bansal said. It increased to Rs.103.67 crore, from Rs.69 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The net interest income of the bank stood at Rs.1,029 crore (Rs.1,001.60 crore), and the other income at Rs.328.27 crore (Rs.338.59 crore).

The gross and net NPAs (non-performing assets) of the bank increased to 4.88 per cent (3.08 per cent) and 3.27 per cent (2.15 per cent), respectively.

On NPAs, he said one account is coming up for restructuring in Q4. The bank has made provisions for that in the third quarter, he said.

Tier-I capital

Bansal said that the bank raised additional tier-1 capital in the form of non-convertible perpetual bonds amounting to Rs.500 crore during February.

On Monday, the scrip of Corporation Bank closed at Rs.62.65 apiece on the BSE, down 2.72 per cent from the previous close of Rs.64.40.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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PNB: Gauri Shankar is MD & CEO

Gauri Shankar, an Executive Director of Punjab National Bank, has been given additional charge of Managing Director and CEO of the public sector bank. An order to this effect was issued by the Department of Financial Services here on Monday. Gauri Shankar has taken over this additional charge with immediate effect, according to a PNB release.


Source : Thehindubusinessline

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