Public sector lender Oriental Bank of Commerce on Thursday reported a 14.76 per cent growth in net profit at Rs. 289.43 crore for the third quarter of 2009-10 on the back of high interest income and fee-based income.
The bank had posted a net profit of 252 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
The profit in the third quarter has come on the back of interest income and non-interest income, OBC Chairman and Managing Director T.Y. Prabhu told reporters here.
During the quarter, the interest income increased by 11 per cent to Rs. 2,671.59 crore compared to Rs. 2,400 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
The total income rose to Rs. 2,909.27 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, from Rs. 2,718.20 crore in the same period previous fiscal.
The treasury profit in the quarter has come down to Rs. 51 crore from Rs. 184.8 crore during October-December quarter 2008, he said.
At the same time, he said, the provisioning has increased to Rs. 333 crore compared to Rs. 134 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
However, the net interest margin of the bank improved to 3 per cent at the end of third quarter compared to 2.02 per cent in the same quarter previous fiscal.
Asked about NPA outlook, he said there is no concern as far as OBC is concerned.
Capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at 13.20 per cent for the quarter ended December 31, 2009.
On interest rate outlook, Prabhu said, “We don’t expect any hardening of interest rates till March-April this year even if RBI raises CRR (cash reserve ratio) by 50 basis points during the period.”
Asked about the capital raising plan, he said that the bank has headroom of Rs. 5,530 crore through bonds.
Talking about numbers Prabhu said the business mix of the bank increased to Rs. 1,89,299 crore as December 2009, registering a growth of 20.58 per cent.
The total deposits of the bank increased to Rs. 1,10,745 crore while CASA deposits have increased to Rs. 27,050 crore registering a growth of 21.39 per cent.
During the current financial year, the bank opened 61 branches. Bank shall be shortly launching Mobile Banking facilities for its customers.
In the first phase, the facilities provided would include Balance enquiry, Account statement, Intra Bank Fund Transfer, Inter Bank Fund Transfer and Branch & ATM locator, he said.
