Canara Bank Q3 net dives 87% to Rs 85 crore on NPA woes

State-run Canara Bank today posted a massive 87 per cent plunge in its net profit at Rs 85 crore in the quarter to December, pulled down by higher provisioning for bad loans.
The bank had registered a net profitof Rs 656 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
Total income during the quarter fell to Rs 12,050 crore from Rs 12,228 crore in the October-December period a year earlier.
A higher provisioning against bad loans has hit the bank's net profit which has come down to Rs 85 crore, Canara Bank CFO N Selvarajan told reporters here.
MD and CEO Rakesh Sharma said, "Yes, there is a reduction (in profit) compared to last year. It was mainly because as per AQR (asset quality review) we have been able to identify those NPAs so that we can take all corrective steps."

"Once having identified those NPAs, we will betaking steps and now we will be strengthening our recoverypart also," he said.

The bank's percentage of gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) rose to 5.84 per cent from 3.35 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.
Its percentage of net NPAs went up to 3.90 per cent from 2.42 per cent at the end of December 2014.
Gross NPAs in absolute terms rose significantly to Rs 19,813.44 crore as compared to Rs 10,573.57 crore at the end of December 2014.
Total provisions of the bank, excluding for income tax, during the third quarter were Rs 1,428.85 crore asagainst Rs 841.33 crore in the year-ago period.

Operating profit declined to Rs 1,552.44 crore as against Rs 1,797.30crore in the corresponding period.
Canara bank said its Net Interest Margin (NIM) (Domestic) was at 2.29 per cent and NIM (global) at 2.16 per cent, and Cost-income ratio marginally improved to 49.46 per cent from 49.84 per cent last year.
Provision coverage ratio of the bank stood at 53.96 per cent, compared to 59.44 per cent last year.
Stating that Capital Adequacy Ratio as per Basel lll norms improved to 11.54 per cent, the bank also said there is adequate headroom available to raise capital to support business growth momentum.

It said total number of branches increased to 5,794, including seven overseas branches as of December 2015 and numberof ATMs increased to 9,144.