UCO Bank net profit up 145% at Rs 504 cr in July-September quarter

Net NPA reduced to Rs 2,700.29 crore in Q2FY23 from Rs 3,854.33 crore as on Q2FY22 and from Rs 3,103.82 crore as on Q1FY23

State-owned UCO Bank on Thursday reported a 145.64 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 504.52 crore in the July-September quarter of financial year 2022-23 (Q2FY23). The lender had posted a net profit of Rs 205.39 crore in the year-ago period.

It was one of the best quarters in the history of the bank, 

Soma Sankara Prasad, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), UCO Bank, said. This is the highest profit ever made by the bank after 2014 June (quarter) when the bank had made a profit of Rs 515 crore, Prasad said.

Commenting on the factors that contributed to profitability, the MD said the provisions have come down, the recoveries have improved, and the net interest income (NII) has gone up. The profitability would have been higher, but for the fact that the treasury income has gone down, he added.

The operating profit for the September quarter stood at Rs 1,189.78 crore as against Rs 1,334.15 crore for the quarter ended September 2021.

The state-owned lender's NII increased to Rs 1,769.60 crore from Rs 1,597.72 crore in the year-ago period, a growth of 10.76 per cent. The total business of the bank rose to Rs 3,77,304.92 crore, a rise of 12.55 per cent from the corresponding quarter last year.

Net non-performing assets (NPA) reduced to Rs 2,700.29 crore in Q2FY23 from Rs 3,854.33 crore as on Q2FY22 and from Rs 3,103.82 crore as on Q1FY23 .

Prasad explained that NPAs had reduced as the recovery was more than the slippage. “I think the banking sector can say that the worst is behind us in terms of NPAs,” he said.