 "South Indian Bank profit rises 15.58% in Dec quarter")
South Indian Bank has reported a 15.58 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, at Rs 101.63 crore, compared to Rs 87.93 crore a year ago. The bank's total business grew 10.05 per cent to Rs 94,042 crore, from Rs 85,457 crore.
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer V G Mathew said net interest margin improved 6 basis points year-on-year (y-o-y) and 9 bps on a sequential basis.
The bank has been focusing on various retail sectors for asset growth. These sectors have registered substantial growth y-o-y. Agriculture and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) advances increased 21 per cent on a y-o-y basis. Home loan and automobiles loan portfolios increased 31 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. Personal and consumer credit also increased 52 per cent.
The capital adequacy ratio of the bank stands at 11.70 per cent as on December 31, 2015.
The growth drivers, Mathew said, were agri & SME loans, home loan, automobiles loan and CASA.
He added the asset quality stress in the corporate sector is bottoming out and due to increased focus on retail lending, stress in the overall loan book is expected to ease.
South Indian Bank shares were trading at Rs 18.15 per scrip, down 1.09 per cent from their previous close on the BSE.
The Bank started Centralised Marketing and Processing Centre at Kalamassery for ensuring focused marketing of various Retail products and for efficient and fully compliant customer account creation on the liability side which will help a long way in further improving operational efficiency and customer service.
