Federal Bank's net rises 26% to Rs 206 cr in Oct-Dec qtr

Bank has registered a net profit of Rs 162.72 crore in the year-ago period

Private sector Federal Bank on Thursday posted a 26.4 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 205.65 crore for third quarter ended December 31, as higher interest income and fewer slippages helped reap gains.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 162.72 crore in the year-ago period.

"Total income has increased to Rs 2,544.75 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 from Rs 2,086.07 crore for the same quarter year ago," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The interest income of the bank rose to Rs 2,281.42 crore in third quarter, up by 19.9 per cent from Rs 1,903.25 crore a year ago.

Although asset quality improved, both on an yearly and sequential basis, the bank parked higher amount toward provisions and contingencies as per RBI's new Asset Quality Review (AQR) rules.

"The bank has made provision for non-performing assets as stipulated under Reserve Bank (RBI) norms. Further, provision for standard assets including requirements for exposures to entities with unhedged foreign currency exposures and provision for restructured advances have been made as per RBI guidelines," it said.

Provisions and contingencies rose to Rs 158.82 crore during October-December period of 2016-17, more than double the Rs 75.11 crore kept aside for same quarter previous year.

On asset quality, Federal Bank's gross non-performing asset (NPA) came down to 2.77 per cent of gross advances at the end of December 2016 against 3.15 per cent a year earlier.

Net NPA too fell to 1.58 per cent of the net advances at the end of third quarter, from 1.66 per cent in the same quarter last fiscal.

Shares of the bank were trading 0.59 per cent down at Rs 76.35 apiece on BSE.