Central Bank hopeful of maintaining NIM at 2.53% in Q4

Public sector lender Central Bank of India (CBI) is hopeful of maintaining its Net Interest Margin (NIM) at the current level of around 2.53% in the fourth quarter, a top bank official said.

However, the official said the bank may not see drastic changes in the non-performing asset (NPA) quality during January-March quarter.

"Net interest margin will be the maintained [at the same level of the last quarter]. But, the NPA level may not see a dramatic change during the current quarter," the official said.

Net interest margin is the difference between interest income generated by a bank and the interest it pays to its lenders.

 

During the last quarter (September-December), the gross NPA of the bank rose to 3.69% from 2.34% a year earlier. Similarly, its net NPA rose to 2.04% from 0.71% reported a year ago.

Earlier, the bank had said that as it is in the process of monitoring loan accounts up to Rs 5 lakh through the system by March, it may add some fresh slippages in the last quarter.

However, the official said the NPA level would begin to come down from the first quarter of the next fiscal.

"The NPA movement will stabilise and start coming down from the first quarter of next financial year."

The bank posted a 72% drop in its net profit to Rs 113.24 crore in the third quarter against Rs 404 crore in the corresponding period year ago. Its total income grew 21.9% to Rs 5,099 crore during the period.