NPA provisioning to hit PNB results; to report loss of Rs 27 billion in Q4

Fraud-related provisioning besides RBI's new NPA rules to hit the bank sharply

Like many public-sector banks (PSBs) that have announced their March 2018 (Q4) results so far, Punjab National Bank (PNB) too is expected to report losses but of a higher magnitude. Besides higher slippages (loans turning bad) due to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new non-performing assets (NPAs or bad loans) rules and mark-to-market (MTM) provisioning for depreciation in value of government bonds due to higher yields, provisioning for the Rs 135 billion fraud reported in February is expected to have led to the poor performance in Q4.

Though the bank is expected to have spread the fraud-related provisioning over