Our Bureau Thrissur (Kerala) headquartered CSB Bank cut its net loss to ₹60 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020 against ₹151 crore in the year ago period as provision towards bad loans came down substantially.

Net interest income (difference between interest earned and interest expended) increased by 31 per cent to ₹158 crore in the reporting quarter ended March 31, 2020 against ₹121 crore in the year ago quarter.

Total non-interest income, comprising treasury profit, commission income, processing fee, bad debts recovered and other income) soared 89 per cent to ₹87 crore (₹46 crore in the year ago quarter).

The operating profit before provisions and contingencies was at ₹107 crore against an operating loss of ₹38 crore in the year ago quarter.

Loan loss provisions of the private sector bank (formerly The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd) was substantially lower at ₹56 crore (₹167 crore).

Tax expense jumped to ₹82 crore (against a tax write-back of ₹78 crore) as the bank decided to exercise the option permitted under section 115 BAA of the lncome Tax Act, 1961 as introduced by the Taxation Laws (Amendment) ordinance, 2019.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) inched up to 3.54 per cent of gross advances as at March-end 2020 against 3.22 per cent as at December-end 2019. Net NPAs nudged down to 1.91 per cent of net advances against 1.98 per cent.

C VR Rajendran, Managing Director & CEO, said: “Our main aim would be to carefully build a stable asset base in the current environment of heightened VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), while diversifying our funding base, cutting costs and improving upon margins and fee income.”

The bank is planning to open 103 branches in FY21. These branches will be opened in areas with gold loan, agriculture and microfinance, micro, small and medium enterprise and CASA (current account, savings account) potential in line with its strategic priorities.

Published on June 15, 2020

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