Three of the four public sector banks that announced their Jan-March earnings suffered losses due to increased provisions for non-performing assets.
Union Bank of India was the only bank to report a profit of Rs.96 crore as compared to Rs.444 crore recorded in the same period of the previous year. However, the bank reported a loss Rs.155 crore at profit-before-tax level.
The lender’s added non-performing assets (NPA) of about Rs.5,500 crore during the quarter which resulted in 50 per cent year-on-year increase in provisioning to Rs.1,564 crore. .
Bank of Baroda reported a loss of Rs.3,230 crore during the fourth quarter as compared to Rs.598 crore of profit in the comparable period of the previous year. The bank’s gross NPA went up by about Rs.1,500 crore sequentially. Allahabad Bank reported Rs.581 crore loss in the fourth quarter as its gross bad loans doubled to Rs.15,385 crore (which is 9.76% of gross advances) at the end of March . Another Kolkata-based lender UCO Bank reported Rs.1,715 crore loss during the period under review as provisions rose to Rs.2,345 crore due to a doubling of gross NPAs to Rs.20,907 crore.
