Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) swung into black, posting a net profit of ₹143.79 crore in the quarter ended March 2020 as bad loans declined significantly.

The public sector bank had posted a net loss of ₹1,985.16 crore during January-March quarter of preceding fiscal ended March 2019.

In October-December 2019, its net loss stood at ₹6,075.49 crore.

Income during March quarter of FY20 remained nearly flat at ₹5,484.06 crore as compared with ₹5,473.92 crore in the same period of 2018-19, IOB said in a regulatory filing.

Provisioning for bad loans and contingencies during the quarter fell to ₹1,060.38 crore as against ₹4,501.92 crore in the year-ago quarter.

On asset quality front, there was a huge improvement in gross non-performing assets (NPA) which stood at 14.78 per cent of the gross advances as on March 31, 2020 as against 21.97 per cent at the end of March 2019.

In absolute terms, gross NPAs stood at ₹19,912.70 crore as against ₹33,398.12 crore a year ago.

Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans dropped to 5.44 per cent (₹6,602.80 crore) from 10.81 per cent (₹14,368.30 crore) a year ago.

The bank’s provision coverage ratio as on March 31, 2020 stood at 86.94 per cent as against 71.39 per cent a year ago.

Shares of IOB on Thursday closed 10 per cent higher at ₹11.99 apiece on the BSE.

Published on June 25, 2020

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