Page 6 - Banking Finance April 2022

BANK UPDATE

account holder's discretion, and banks 35.8 % at Rs 858.9 crore during the growth in net interest income (NII).
may consider making it mandatory for third quarter of current fiscal, register- Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs
the cheque value of Rs 5 lakh and ing a rise from Rs 632.6 crore in the 578 crore compared to Rs 378 crore in
above. similar previous period. the corresponding quarter of previous
PNB in a release said that the PPS will MD and CEO of Bandhan Bank, financial year (FY21).
now become mandatory from the next Chandra Sekhar Ghosh told that the Its NII, which is the interest earned
month for the cheques of Rs 10 lakh quarter ending December has been a minus the interest expended, in-
and above. good one for the bank and growth has creased by over 30 % year-on-year
bounced back after the depressing first (YoY) to Rs 2,383 crore and sequen-
As per the Positive Pay System (PPS)
developed by the National Payments quarter of current fiscal. tially it was up 29 %. However, non-
Corporation of India (NPCI), a customer In the second quarter of the current interest income was down 20 % YoY to
issuing the high-value cheque has to fiscal, the bank reported a loss of Rs Rs 1,148 crore but it posted a sequen-
reconfirm some essential details. The 3009 crore due to higher provisioning. tial growth of 17 %. Net interest mar-
gin, a measure of profitability of banks,
details are then cross-checked while Ghosh said that collection efficiency
presenting the cheque in clearing be- (CE) numbers have grown on the whole improved by 101 basis points (bps) to
fore payment. which stood at 93 % at during Q3. 3.88 % at the end of December quar-
ter.
The lender said its customers will have While the CE in West Bengal is 97 %, it
to share details like account number, is 96 % in Assam, he said. Provisions of the lender was down 7.62
cheque number, cheque alpha code, % on YoY basis to Rs 801.81 crore but
According to him, the net interest it was up 40 % on a sequential basis.
issue date, amount, beneficiary name margin (NIM) of the bank stood at 7.8
for clearing the high value cheques Also, the bank has Covid provisions to
%, while gross and net NPAs have both the tune of Rs 863 crore as of Decem-
under PPS.
fallen. ber quarter.
These details are to be shared with the
bank at least 24 working hours before The capital adequacy ratio at the end Asset quality has improved both se-
the cheque is presented for clearing. of December quarter stood at 20 %, quentially and on a YoY basis. Gross
while provisioning coverage ratio was non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at
Customers can share the details
at 74.4 %. During the quarter, the bank 20.56 % at the end of December quar-
through its internet banking, mobile
had collected Rs 2500 crore from re- ter (Q3FY22), compared to 23.52 % in
banking, SMS banking or in their home
structured loans. Q3FY21 and 21.85 % in Q2FY22. Net
branch in the prescribed format.
"Stress in the system is going down NPAs, on the other hand, stood at 1.7
"The cheques that are registered in the which will lead to improved GNPA lev- %. The provision coverage ratio of the
PPS will only be accepted under the els", he said. lender remained very high at 97.10 %.
dispute resolution mechanism," it said.
The share of microfinance loans to
Last year, the Reserve Bank (RBI) had SBI MD Ashwani Bhatia
overall portfolio during the period
issued guidelines to the banks to imple- stood at 52 %. Ghosh said that the appointed Sebi member
ment PPS system to safeguard custom- bank is on track to reduce the share to
ers from the fraudulent collection of 50 % by the end of the financial The government has appointed vet-
high-value cheques. eran banker Ashwani Bhatia as the
year.Total business of the bank at the whole time member of the Sebi.
It had instructed banks to enable the end of the quarter stood at Rs 1,72,000
facility for all account holders issuing crore. Bhatia, who is currently the Managing
cheques for amounts of Rs 50,000 and Director of stressed assets and infor-
mation technology at State Bank of
above. IDBI Bank's profit jumps India, has been appointed for a period
53% of three years.
Bandhan Bank profit up
IDBI Bank has reported a 53 % jump Prior to his elevation as MD of SBI,
35.8% in net profit in the October - Decem- Bhatia was the chief executive of SBI
Net profit of Bandhan Bank increased ber quarter of FY22, aided by a robust Mutual Fund. Bhatia, who started his

6 | 2022 | APRIL | BANKING FINANCE