Syndicate Bank posted a net loss of ₹2,158 crore in the March quarter due to a sharp increase in provisioning for bad loans and a one-off charge relating to a major fraud in three of its branches in Rajasthan. The bank had reported a net profit of ₹416.92 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Provision for bad loans more than tripled to ₹2,411 crore against ₹715.30 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The Manipal-headquartered public sector bank wrote off charges to the tune of ₹883.63 crore on account of a fraud in three of its branches in Jaipur region, where transactions had been carried out based on fake letters of credit (LCs) and cheques over the past four years.

Syndicate Bank’s asset quality deteriorated further as gross non-performing assets rose to 6.7 per cent of gross advances, from 3.13 per cent in the corresponding previous year. In absolute terms, gross NPAs were ₹13,832 crore in the quarter against ₹6,442 crore last year.

The net NPA ratio rose to 4.48 per cent against 1.90 per cent in the corresponding previous quarter. The provision coverage ratio stood at 53.73 per cent as against 66.61 per cent in the corresponding previous quarter.

Net interest income for the quarter grew 2.67 per cent to ₹1,461 crore over the corresponding previous quarter.

For the financial year, Syndicate Bank posted a net loss of ₹1,643 crore against a profit of ₹1,523 crore in the previous fiscal. The bank board did not recommend any dividend for 2015-16.

The bank scrip ended 4.72 per cent higher at ₹66.50 on the BSE on Tuesday.

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