Canara Bank reports Q4 profit at Rs 1,011 crore on lower provisioning

State-owned Canara Bank on Tuesday reported a standalone profit of Rs 1,010.87 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2021 as provision for bad loans declined.

The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 3,259.33 crore during the corresponding January-March 2020 quarter.

Total income on a standalone basis during January-March rose to Rs 21,522.60 crore as against Rs 14,222.39 crore in the year-ago period, Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The lender's provision for non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to Rs 4,427.53 crore for the March 2021 quarter compared to Rs 4,875.28 crore parked aside in the corresponding period of 2019-20.

For the full 2020-21, there was a profit of Rs 2,557.58 as against the loss of Rs 2,235.72 crore during 2019-20.

On the asset quality, gross NPAs continued to remain at an elevated level of 8.93 per cent at the end of March 2021, slightly higher than 8.21 per cent by the end of March 2020.

In value terms, the gross NPAs or bad loans of the bank surged to Rs 60,287.84 crore as of March 31, 2020, vis-a-vis Rs 37,041.15 crore in the year-ago period.

Net NPAs were, however, trimmed substantially to 3.82 per cent (Rs 24,442.07 crore) from 4.22 per cent (Rs 18,250.95 crore).

It is to be noted that the amalgamation of Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank was effected on April 1, 2020.

"Figures of the quarter ended March 31, 2020, and year ended March 31, 2020, are related to standalone Canara Bank financials of the pre-amalgamation period, hence not comparable with post amalgamation financials for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, and year ended March 31, 2021," it said.

Provision coverage ratio as of March 31, 2021, stood at 79.68 per cent, compared to 75.86 per cent a year ago, it said.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at 13.18 per cent as of March 2021. Out of which Tier-I is 10.08 per cent and Tier-II is 3.10 per cent, it said.