The North Malabar Gramin Bank (NMGB) registered a 95 per cent growth in net profit during the quarter ended December 31, 2010.

Net profit was at Rs 14.99 crore as against Rs 7.7 crore during the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Operating profit increased by 26 per cent to Rs 28.05 crore from Rs 22.26 crore.

The business of the bank was at Rs 4,410 crore, marking an increase of 18.39 per cent from Rs 3,725 crore as at the end of December 2009. Deposits were at Rs 1,990 crore and advances at Rs 2,420 crore, thereby posting a credit-deposit ratio of 122 per cent, which, according to the bank officials, was the highest in the State.

They said in tune with the objectives of regional rural banks, NMGB had focussed on priority sector lending, surpassing the mandatory requirement of 60 per cent of the advances to reach 86.27 per cent.

Priority sector advances were to the tune of Rs 2,087 crore, of which Rs 1,046 crore was for agriculture, constituting 43 per cent of the advances. The share of education loan was Rs 126 crore, loans to self-help groups Rs 32 crore and kisan credit cards Rs 245 crore. The bank's share of advances to Government-sponsored schemes also exceeded targets.

The bank was able to bring down the gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio to 1.66 per cent from 2.64 per cent as on March 31, 2010. Net NPA came down to 0.84 per cent from 1.70 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The bank — comprising 178 branches, two extension centres and one satellite office spread over seven districts, namely, Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kollam — has been fully computerised. Consequently, the bank will switch over to core banking operations in this financial year itself, the officials said.