A number of factors, including, fall in lower provisions and an improved asset quality and provision coverage ratio helped improve the PSU bank's performance
Mumbai: Punjab National Bank (PNB) bettered its performance in the fourth quarter of financial year 2018-19 as it narrowed its net loss to Rs 4,750 crore, down from Rs 13,417 crore it posted in the corresponding period in FY2017-18. For the entire financial year, the net loss narrowed to Rs 9,975 in FY2018-19 from Rs 12,282 crores in FY2017-18. A number of factors, including, fall in lower provisions and an improved asset quality and provision coverage ratio helped improve the PSU bank's performance.
The provisioning for bad loans also came down to Rs 7,611 crore in the fourth quarter of FY2018-19 from Rs 12,970 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY 2017-18. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) fell to 15.5 percent from 18.38 percent, while net NPAs went down to 6.5 percent from 11.24 percent.
The public sector bank's net interest income grew 37.1 percent from a year ago to Rs 4,200 crore in Q4. PNB's net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, jumped up to 2.45 percent in the fourth quarter from 1.90 percent in the corresponding period of FY18.
The bank had posted a net loss in FY2017-18 after it discovered the Rs 14,000-crore fraud involving jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi at its Mumbai Brady road branch in January last year. In the aftermath of the discovery, the bank posted losses in three consecutive quarters beginning January-March FY18. It turned profitable only in the previous October-December quarter.