Punjab & Sind Bank Q3 profit up 24% to Rs 373 cr on rising interest income

Punjab & Sind Bank reported a 24% jump in profit at Rs 373 crore for the quarter ended December 2022, aided by healthy growth in interest income and decline in bad loans

State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank on Saturday reported a 24 per cent jump in profit at Rs 373 crore for the quarter ended December 2022, aided by healthy growth in interest income and decline in bad loans.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 301 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Total income increased to Rs 2,245 crore in the December quarter from Rs 2,042 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank's interest income increased to Rs 2,107.44 crore from Rs 1,871.18 crore in the third quarter a year ago while Net Interest Income (NII) improved to Rs 805 crore from Rs 758 crore in October-December quarter of the previous fiscal.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) stood at 3.12 per cent at the end of December 2022.

On the asset quality front, the bank recorded an improvement with gross NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) declining to 8.36 per cent as compared to 14.44 per cent at the end of third quarter of previous fiscal.

Net NPAs also eased to 2.02 per cent as against 3.01 per cent in the same period a year ago.

However, the capital adequacy ratio declined to 15.57 per cent in the December quarter as against 17.82 per cent.

Total Business grew by 12.08 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 1,87,242 crore as on December 2022.

Gross advances rose by 16.54 per cent to Rs 77,745 crore while total deposit increased by 9.11 per cent to Rs 1,09,497 crore.

The bank has surpassed the targets in priority sector lending at 52.54 per cent and agriculture advance at 20.15 per cent of Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC), as on September 2022, against the target of 40 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

Net profit for the nine months of 2022-23 increased to Rs 856 crore from Rs 693 crore in April-December 2021-22.