Dragged down by a 13-fold rise in provisions Bandhan Bank posted a net loss of ₹3,009 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. The bank had registered a net profit of ₹ 920 crore during the same period last year.
Total provisions during the quarter under review jumped up to ₹5,578 crore, as against ₹379 crore same period last year.
According to Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank, the loss reported during the quarter is a “one off” and is mainly due to the accelerated provisioning undertaken. However, the bank is expecting credit growth and collection efficiency to improve going forward.
“We have seen substantial improvement in collections as the second wave of Covid subsided. We have recognised the stress pool and proactively taken additional requisite provisions such as to meet any contingency requirements and we look forward to do business on a clean slate. This has resulted in loss for the quarter,” he told newspersons at a virtual conference on Friday.
The provision on NPA accounts stands at around ₹1,500 crore resulting in Provision Coverage Ratio of 74 per cent as against 62 per cent in Q1FY22. In addition to this, it has also provided additional standard assets provision amounting to ₹2,100 crore and provision on restructured assets amounting to ₹1,030 crore amounting to total of ₹4630 crore, the bank said in its investor presentation.
Collection efficiency improved by around 200 basis points to 88 per cent (86 per cent in June quarter) during the quarter under review.
Gross non-performing asset (NPA) as a percentage to advances increased to 10.82 per cent (1.18 per cent), net NPA went up to 3.04 per cent (0.36 per cent).
“There is an improvement in asset quality and now that the asset quality challenges is behind us we should be able to push ahead with growth,” he said. The bank expects business to be back to pre Covid levels by the end of this fiscal.
The bank’s total business (deposits and advances) grew 15 per cent year-on-year to reach ₹1.64-lakh crore as on September 30, 2021.
During the second quarter of the current financial year, its deposit book grew 24 per cent over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The total deposits stand at ₹81,898 crore. The current account and savings account (CASA) book grew by 45 per cent year-on-year, and the CASA ratio now stands at close to 45 per cent of the overall deposit book.