Page 5 - Banking Finance November 2019

BANK UPDATE

BANKING

NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
NEWS

Rs 81,700 crore dis- SS Mallikarjuna Rao appointed as MD and CEO of

bursed by state-banks Punjab National Bank
through 'loan melas' SS Mallikarjuna Rao has been appointed as the new chief
executive of the Punjab National Bank. Rao, at present the
As much as Rs 81,781 crore has been chief executive of Allahabad Bank, will head the Delhi-based
disbursed by the PNB till September 18, 2021, the government said in a no-
state-run banks
in the nine days tification issued.
of 'loan mela' Rao has 33 years of banking experience behind him. He will
from October 1- 9, according to the replace Sunil Mehta in PNB, which is currently under a pro-
statement of the finance secretary. cess of three-way amalgamation with Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and
After the finance minister after the United Bank of India. Rao started his career as a probationary officer in Bank of
finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Maharashtra in 1985 and had also worked in Global Trust Bank before its merger
met the heads of state-run banks for with OBC. He also worked in Syndicate Bank as executive director.
measures to boost the economy, the
secretary addressed the media. IDFC First Bank posts Rs 680 cr loss on one-time tax

He further stated that an amount of impact
Rs 34,342 crores was disbursed to
new entrepreneurs while noting that A loss of Rs 680 crore has been reported by IDFC First Bank taking an one-time
the banks followed prudential norms impact on deferred tax asset markdown as against Rs
while disbursing the loans. As per the 617 crore in the quarter ago period. The profit before
statement of Finance Minister tax came at Rs 100 crore, as against a loss of Rs 583
Nirmala Sitharaman, the banks have crore in the year-ago period.
sufficient liquidity, and efforts are "The key aspects this quarter are maiden profitability and
being made to ensure that due pay- strong growth in retail deposits and CASA addition of Rs
ments are released to the micro, 6,000 crore," its managing director and chief executive V Vaidyanathan said.
small and medium enterprises
(MSME) sector by large corporates. The bank, which has been formed with the merger of infra-focused IDFC Bank
and the non-bank lender Capital First in January 2019, reduced its loan book by
With an aim of ensuring the liquidity
over Rs 5,000 crore to focus only on retail loans during the quarter, which now
for small businesses, Sitharaman said constitute 45% of the book.
that banks have been asked to pro-
vide bill discounting facility to the While the overall loan book has gone down, it is a more profitable growth as
MSME sector against payments due the retail loans are more profitable and has grown by Rs 3,400 crore last quar-
from the large corporates. ter, Vaidyanathan said.

BANKING FINANCE | NOVEMBER | 2019 | 5