Barclays Bank India operating profit up by 141% in 2013-14

British lender Barclays Bank recorded a 141% growth in India's operating profit for the financial year 2013-14 at Rs 835.74 crore. The bank said that a tight control on finances and a boost in overall revenues had helped the bank improve its earnings.

"A strong focus on controlling costs while at the same time boosting revenues has helped us achieve an improved cost-income ratio of 37.9% against 55.8% in the previous financial year," said Jaideep Khanna, CEO & Country Head, Barclays India.

The bank even staged a turnaround on the overall profitability front. The profit after tax for FY14 was Rs 382.14 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 56.38 crore. The total deposits also more than doubled to Rs 10,859.07 crore from Rs 5,063.20 crore in FY13, thus improving the overall balance sheet. But on the other hand, as a result of the slow loan growth, advances declined to Rs 8,099.97 crore from Rs 8,472.35 crore in FY13.

The lender has also improved credit quality which has boosted the earnings with the gross non- performing asset (NPA) declining to 1.10% from 1.74% in the previous year

Barclays Bank India, closed 2013-14 with a capital adequacy ratio of 19.72%, of this, Tier I capital was 18.99%.

Globally, 2013 was a tough year for banks but Khanna believes that this year may turn out to be better as green shoots in the economy can already be seen. "Our conversations with clients suggest that business sentiment has improved markedly in recent weeks and we're already seeing transaction activity beginning to pick up meaningfully," he added.