Punjab National Bank, the country’s second largest public sector bank, on Friday reported a standalone net profit of ₹586 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31,2021. This was 16 per cent higher over the net profit of ₹506 crore recorded in the previous quarter ended December 31, 2020.

For the full year ended March 31, 2021, PNB has recorded standalone net profit of ₹2,021.62 crore. This is the first full year after PNB got into a three-way amalgamation with Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India from April 1 last year. However, operating profit of the bank for the quarter under review came in at ₹5,634 crore, lower than operating profit of ₹6,391 crore in previous quarter. The bottomline boost came from lower provisioning of taxes.

It maybe recalled that PNB Managing Director and CEO Ch SS Mallikarjuna Rao had in February this year guided that the bank would record profits in the fourth quarter ( FY 20-21)and achieve the overall indicated profit of ₹ 2,000 crore in FY20-21 despite pandemic induced challenges.

PNB’s net interest income stood at ₹6,938 crore for the quarter under review.

The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) increased to 14.12 per cent in the March quarter, compared with 12.99 per cent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, its net non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 5.73 per cent. The total income stood at ₹ 22,531 crore compared with ₹23,299 crore in the previous quarter. As of March 31, 2021, the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of the lender stood at 14.32 per cent.

“The current coronavirus situation continues to be uncertain and the Bank is evaluating the impact on an ongoing basis. The extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic will impact the Bank’s results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain including among other things, the success of vaccination drive,” PNB said in a stock exchange filing.

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