Fino Payments Bank Q2 net up at ₹4.5 crore

Fino Payments Bank Ltd (FPBL) on Wednesday said it has recorded a net profit of ₹4.5 crore in the second quarter (July-September) of FY21.

The bank, in a statement, said this is the third consecutive quarter wherein it has registered profit growth. It recorded a net profit of ₹1.3 crore in the fourth quarter (January-March) of FY20 and ₹1.9 crore in the first quarter (April-June) FY21, as per the statement.

Ketan Merchant, Chief Financial Officer, FPBL, said a lean variable cost ABC (alternate banking channel) model riding on digital platforms, increasing transactions and high margin products helped the Bank cut costs, increase revenue and achieve an operating profit of ₹13 crore in Q2 FY21.

Remittance & gold loans

“Urban to rural domestic remittance business took the biggest hit during the initial days of lockdown as migrant worker wages were hit. However, the business bounced back growing by 80 per cent in Q2FY21 to ₹6,400 crore from ₹3,540 crore in Q1FY21,” the Bank said.

During this period, the demand for gold loans picked up as people needed money to tide over the crisis or restart their livelihood. “In Q2 FY21, ₹430 crore worth of gold loans through referrals were facilitated by FPBL network, registering a healthy growth of 147 per cent compared to Q1 FY21,” according to the statement.

Network

The bank said it had increased its own banking points to nearly 3 lakh by Q2 FY21 end against about 2 lakh banking points at FY20 end. This includes over 8000 outlets of FPBL’s strategic partner Bharat Petroleum (BPCL).

“In addition, FPBL has 2.5 lakh points through its partners making the total network at around 5.5 lakh…To further improve banking access, FPBL plans to increase the network to 10 lakh outlets over the next 3 years ,” the statement said.