We will turn around with Rs 1 billion profit in 2018-19: C V R Rajendran

We need to grow the balance sheet, which did not grow for the past three-four years due to lack of capital

Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB), in which Fairfax has agreed to take a 51 per cent stake, has reported a loss of Rs 974.7 million in 2017-18. The Kerala-based lender saw Rs 15.5 million profit in 2016-17 and a loss of Rs 1.49 billion in 2015-16. After the bank's board meeting, C V R RAJENDRAN, managing director and chief executive officer of the Thrissur-headquartered bank, talks to T E Narasimhan on the outlook. Edited excerpts:

You were expecting a full-year profit. What happened?

This was mainly due to increase in non-performing assets (NPA) in Kerala. The state government announced an education loan repayment