Central Bank of India back in black, logs Rs 310-crore profit in Q4

Public sector lender Central Bank of India posted a net profit of Rs 310 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2022 on improved net interest income (NII) and fall in provisions.

It had posted a net loss of Rs 1,349 crore in the quarter ended March 2021.

For FY22, the Mumbai-based lender’s net profit stood at Rs 1,045 crore against loss of Rs 888 crore for FY21.

The bank is under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) prompt corrective action (PCA) since June 2017. It reported net profit in FY22 after incurring losses for March 2016 to March 2021. It was placed under 

PCA regime in June 2017 due to high net NPA and negative return on assets.

M V Rao, managing director and chief executive, said the bank is complying with the PCA parameters and will submit audited results to the RBI. It will also make a request to the RBI to move out of the PCA regime. The bank’s NII rose by 59.43 per cent to Rs 2,417 crore for Q4 of FY22 against Rs 1,516 crore for Q4 of FY21. The stock closed 1.9 per cent lower at Rs 18.05 per share on the BSE on Monday.

Provisions fell by 42.09 per cent to Rs 1,150 crore in Q4 of FY22 from Rs 1,986 crore in Q4 of FY21.

Provision coverage ratio (PCR) improved from 82.54 per cent to 86.69 per cent.

Asset quality improved with a decline in gross non-performing assets (gross NPAs) to 14.84 per cent in March 2022 from 16.55 per cent a year ago. Net NPAs stood at 3.97 per cent in March 2022, down from 5.77 per cent a year ago.

The bank — in an analysts’ presentation — said it expects to bring down gross NPAs below 10 per cent and net NPAs to less than 3.5 per cent by the end of March 2023.

Gross advances rose by 7.23 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1.89 trillion as on March 31, 2022. It has pegged growth in loan book to 10-12 per cent in FY23.

Total deposits grew by 3.85 cent YoY to Rs 3.43 trillion at the end of March 2022.

Share of low cost deposits — current account and savings accounts (CASA) — rose to 50.58 per cent in March 2022 from 49.24 per cent a year ago.