State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched effective recovery measures aimed at ‘substantial reduction’ in non-performing assets (NPAs).
Asset tracking centres are being fully activated as part of a major strategy to prevent further slippage in assets, Managing Director Jeevandas Narayan said here.
Provisions against NPAs jumped 105 per cent during the September quarter compared to year-ago levels even as the bank was following up stressed assets with a tracking mechanism.
The bank took cues from a Reserve Bank circular of 2001 to show provisions specifically against NPAs separated from the more general ‘provisions and contingencies.’
This is an effort aimed at providing greater transparency about the financial results, according to top bank officials.
A number of branches had been reporting provisions made along these lines.
The jump of 490 per cent increase in tax expenses during the second quarter this year was being attributed to cyclical variations in the size of exemptions available to the bank.
Overall, the bank suffered a 65.34 per-cent dip in net profit for the September quarter from year-ago levels.
The reasonably good achievement on expenditure control seems to have been neutralised by muted performance under the income head.
This had, in turn, weighed on the operating profit level, which was kept down by 11.32 per cent during the quarter.
