IDBI Bank Q4 net up 49.4 pc at Rs 771 cr

New Delhi: Public sector lender IDBI Bank today reported a 49.42 per cent spike in net profit for the quarter to March at Rs 771 crore, boosted by a gain of Rs 183 crore in deferred tax, and lower provisions for bad loans. During the same quarter last fiscal, the city-based lender had reported a post-tax profit of Rs 516 crore. During the reporting quarter, the net interest income (NII) of the youngest state-run bank grew by a modest 9.4 per cent at Rs 1,211 crore, against Rs 1,107 crore a year ago. The jump in profit was aided by a deferred tax payment of Rs 183 crore, while it paid Rs 150 crore in taxes during the quarter. Total income grew to Rs 6,857 crore from Rs 5,701 crore, while the interest income touched Rs 6,080 crore, up from Rs 5,024 crore, and non-interest income rose to Rs 777 crore from Rs 677 crore. During the quarter, the net NPA improved to 1.61 per cent, against 1.96 per cent a year ago, while for the full fiscal it rose to 1.61 percent from 1.06 percent. There was a marginal improvement in gross NPA too, at 2.49 per cent, against 2.94 per cent a year ago, but for the full fiscal it rose to 2.49 percent from 1.76 percent. "Our provisions came down to Rs 424 crore in the reporting quarter from Rs 651 crore a year ago, as we could successfully recover some of the bad assets during the quarter," chairman and managing director RM Malla told reporters here this evening.

PNB cuts lending rate by 0.25 pc

New Delhi: Country's second largest public sector bank PNB today announced cut in lending rate by 0.25 per cent, a move that will make housing and corporate loans cheaper. "The bank has decided to decrease the base rate by 25 basis points from 10.75 per cent to 10.50 per cent," Punjab National Bank said in a statement. The base rate is the minimum interest rate below which banks can't lend. With the reduction in rates, likely to be followed by other lenders, housing and corporate loans would become cheaper by at least 0.25 per cent. Besides, PNB has also decided to slash interest rate on term deposits of less than Rs 1 crore by 0.25-0.50 per cent in select buckets. The new rates will be effective from May 1, the bank said. The decision comes barely two days after the RBI reduced the short-term lending (repo) rate by 0.5 per cent to 8 per cent in its monetary policy on Apri 17. IDBI Bank had announced cut its lending and deposit rates yesterday.

ICICI Bank cuts lending rates by 25 bps

Mumbai: Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank today became the first major bank to cut its lending and deposit rates by 0.25 percent following the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates by 0.50 percent two days ago. Accordingly, the bank's base rate or the minimum lending rate, stands reduced by 25 basis points to 9.75 per cent, while the prime lending rates also saw a similar reduction to 18.50 percent. "With the easing of systemic liquidity, we have already seen some correction in wholesale deposit rates. We expect the cost of funds to gradually come down and this reduction in the lending rates is a proactive move by us to pass on the benefit to our valued customers," Managing Director and Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said in a statement explaining the reason for the reductions. The revised base rate is applicable from April 23, the bank said. The move comes a day after state-run mid-run bank IDBI Bank announced a 0.25 percent cut in lending rates while a slew of other banks, including HDFC Bank, have also hinted at similar moves since the RBI announcement. The ICICI has also cut rates on loans under the older BPLR (benchmark prime lending rate) regime by 0.25 percent to 18.50 and for consumer loans, apart from cutting its floating reference rate (FRR) by a similar amount to 15.50 per cent which will benefit home loan borrowers.

IndusInd bank’s Q4 net up 30% to Rs 223 cr

Mumbai: Higher growth in core and fee incomes pushed up private sector IndusInd Bank's March quarter profit by 30 per cent to Rs 223.4 crore against Rs 171.76 crore in the same period a year ago. Total revenues rose around 33 per cent to Rs 756.45 crore in the fourth quarter against Rs 569.71 crore reported in the same period last year. "Despite a challenging quarter, there was an overall improvement in our performance in all parameters. While our net profit and income have increased, there have been a drop in the overall NPA (non-performing asset) level," IndusInd Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Romesh Sobti told reporters while announcing the fourth quarter result. During the quarter under review, the bank reported a 20 per cent rise in net interest income (NII) to Rs 464.40 crore against Rs 388.08 crore reported a year earlier. Similarly, total non-interest income grew by 61 per cent to Rs 292.05 crore during the period from 181.63 crore reported a year ago. However, there was a drop in the net interest margin (NIM) to 3.29 per cent in the Jan-March period against 3.50 per cent reported a year earlier. On the NPA front, gross NPA dropped to 0.98 per cent from 1.01 per cent and net NPA declined to 0.27 per cent from 0.28 per cent reported a year earlier. The bank has reported a 39 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 802.61 crore in FY12 from Rs 577.32 crore in FY11. Total income during the last financial year grew by 30 per cent to Rs 2,716.03 crore as against Rs 2,090.15 crore reported in the same period last year. Net NPA of the lender for the full fiscal stood at 0.27 per cent compared to 0.28 per cent a year earlier.

Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank gets RBI licence

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has today issued banking license to the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank. The state government had written to the Centre to extend by two months the March 31 deadline set by the RBI for 11 District Central Co-operative Banks and the State Co-operative Bank to obtain the banking licence. Rakesh Mohan Committee recommendations, accepted by the Union Finance Ministry, make it mandatory for all the cooperative banks to get a licence before the deadline. Across the country, there are 134 banks which do not have licence from RBI. If the banks are unable to get the licence before the deadline, they will have to become a cooperative credit society, or merge with another bank. Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank and 11 district central cooperative banks were functioning without banking licence so far. On May 28 last year, the RBI, on the recommendation of Nabard, had dissolved the board of directors of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank, for financial irregularities.

Religare gets R2 license for health insurance biz

New Delhi: Healthcare and financial services major Religare Enterprises today said its health insurance company has received R2 license from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority. "We are pleased to move a step closer to launching our operations, and are in a complete state of preparedness for the same," Religare Health Insurance Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Anuj Gulati said in a statement. Religare Health Insurance is a joint venture between Religare Enterprises, Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank. Religare is present in the life insurance segment and has a partnership with Dutch insurer Aegon. The Delhi-based firm will be the fourth standalone health insurance firm.