Public sector lender Bank of India (BoI) joined the bandwagon of loss-making PSBs by posting a three-fold jump in losses at ₹3,969.27 crore during the quarter ending March 31, 2018, due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank’s losses were pegged at ₹1,045.52 crore in the year-ago period.

Provisions during the quarter increased by 41 per cent to ₹6,674 crore, from ₹4,736 crore a year ago.

A statement said that the bank has successfully recovered ₹9,239 crore out of the ₹9,766-crore assets marked as non-performing assets (NPAs) on account of divergence mandated by the Reserve Bank of India.

However, as a result of the RBI directive, the bank had to categorise ₹5,107-crore restructured advances as NPAs. Notwithstanding that, gross NPAs declined to ₹62,328 crore in March 2018, from ₹64,249 crore in December 2017, and the gross NPA ratio improved to 16.58 per cent in March 2018 from 16.93 per cent in December 2017, the bank said.

Net interest income

The Mumbai-headquartered bank’s net interest income (NII) during the January to March quarter stood at ₹2,564 crore, down 26 per cent from ₹3,469 crore in the corresponding quarter. Other income declined 21.5 per cent to ₹1,375.23 crore in Q4, from ₹1,754 crore in the previous fiscal.

The bank’s global business declined 4 per cent at ₹8,96,850 crore as on March 31, 2018, against ₹9,33,820 crore in the year-ago period, thanks to the bank’s conscious decision to rationalise its overseas expansion. The bank’s exposure to overseas markets also impacted its gross advances marginally.

However, domestic advances increased to ₹2,93,500 crore during the quarter, from ₹2,85,752 crore in the year-ago period. The bank’s ratio of current account, savings account (CASA) recorded a growth of 41 per cent during the quarter under review, compared with 40 per cent in March 2017.

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