Indian Bank 3qtr net surges 670% to Rs 373.47 Crore

: Public sector Indian Bank has registered a 670 per cent rise in its third quarter net profits ending December 31, 2016, to Rs 373.47 crore.
The Chennai-headquartered bank had registered net profits at Rs 48.47 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
For the nine month period ending December 31, 2016 net profits surged 77.5 per cent to Rs 1085.97 crore from Rs 611.49 crore registered during year ago period.
Briefing reporters, Indian Bank Managing Director and CEO Mahesh Kumar Jain said the rise in net profits was decrease in non-provisioning and increase in the operating profits.

Total provisions of the bank for the quarter ending December 31, 2016 was at Rs 647.69 crore as against Rs 718.23 crore registered in the same period of last year, he said.
"Our last year net profits was Rs 42 crore. Our operating profits also grew. It grew to Rs 1,021.18 crore (for the period ending December 31, 2016) from Rs 760.52 crore registered during same period of last year", he said.

"Total income has increased to Rs 4,557.25 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 from Rs 4,444.58 crore for the same quarter a year ago," he said.

The net non-performing assets (NPAs) as a percentage of total loans rose to 7.69 per cent at the end of December 31, from 5.61 per cent in same period last year.
Net NPAs stood at 4.76 per cent of net advances disbursed till December-end, little higher from 3.17 per cent in the same period last fiscal.
Referring to impact of demonetisation as announced by the Centre in November, Jain said as many as 1.48 crore deposit transactions and 3.72 crore withdrawals took place during the three month period ending December 31, 2016.
As many as 13.08 lakh customers exchanged currency notes valued at Rs 456.39 crore, he said.

On the push for digital banking by the Centre, he said during the quarter under review, Point of Sale transactions soared to 2.50 lakh per day as against average of 70,000.
Mobile banking transactions increased by 82.1 per cent.
On the outlook for the bank, he said the bank would focus on increasing the retail lending while reducing the corporate credit.
"We feel there will be some kind of growth in micro, small and medium enterprise segment. We expect housing loan will lead the growth in retail sector this year. We also want to reduce the Corporate credit.", he said.

The bank's net worth increased to 14,533.18 crore as on December 31, 2016 from Rs 14,184.36 crore as on September 30, 2016, he said.