Public sector Indian Overseas Bank has recorded net loss at Rs 971.1 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2017.
The city-headquartered bank had recorded net loss at Rs 554.44 crore during corresponding period of last year.
For the nine month period ending December 31, 2017, net loss of the bank was at Rs 2,692.76 crore as against Rs 2,770.07 crore registered during year ago period.
Declaring the financial results, the bank Managing Director and CEO, R Subramaniakumar said the net loss for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 decreased by 20.56 per cent "sequentially".
Total income for the October-December 31, 2017 slipped to Rs 5,062.38 crore from Rs 5,599.50 crore registered during year ago period, he said.
For the nine month period ending December 31, 2017, total income went down to Rs 15,847.23 crore from Rs 17,429.55 crore registered during year ago period.
Subramaniakumar said the gross NPA of the bank for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 stood at Rs 33,267 crore (21.95 per cent) while Net NPA was Rs 17,761 crore (13.08 per cent).
"Majority of the recovery is from small loan account. Our aim is to reduce the GNPA further down below the level of 19 per cent in coming quarters," he told reporters.
The bank has identified retail, agriculture and micro, small and medium enterprises as focus areas. It was expected to report profit by third quarter of 2018-19.
"We have come out of the crisis phase and now we are end of the consolidation phase. Later we will be in the leveraging phase," he said.
He said the bank was able to recover Rs 12,000 crore between December 2016 and December 2017.
To a query, he said the bank has identified financial inclusion as a way to register revenues and added that they have also taken up audit of existing assets.
"We have taken up space audit like reducing the size of branches which were operating in large rented premises. Through this initiative we were able to save nearly Rs 17 crore," he said.
Total business of the bank for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 increased to Rs 3,68,128 crore as against Rs 3,64,736 crore registered during same period of last year.
Total deposits for the October-December 31, 2017 quarter increased to Rs 2,16,592 crore from Rs 2,10,861 crore registered during same period of last year.
Noting that the Gross Non Performing Assets level shot upto Rs 35,453 crore, he said, the bank board drew out a complete clear cut turnaround plan and now it has been brought down to Rs 33,266 crore.
"The turnaround strategy was not only restricted only to recovery of the NPAs and not in arresting the slippage. It is a multi-faceted attempt wherein we have identified gaps in our processes and system, identified gaps in systematic issues," he said.
"We identified the areas which requires to be focused for credit growth and part of the strategy we identified RAM, that is Retail, Agriculture and MSME as a growth path of the bank. Plan is also to move towards rebalancing of credit portfolio," he said.
On NPAs management, he said, "a strong analytical team at the back end has been set up." An NPA mobile app has also been set up in which officials from each region of the bank would focus on MSME for taking up the recovery.
Majority of recovery was contributed from small loan accounts, he said.
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