PNB reports biggest quarterly loss in India's banking history; posts Rs 5,367 cr net loss in Q4

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Wednesday posted a record Rs 5,367.1 crore net loss in Q4, making it biggest quarterly loss by any public sector lender in the Indian banking history.

A three-fold surge in provisioning for bad loans, including for power discoms and Punjab foodgrain related loans, were the main drags on the bank's performance and it expects the pain to continue for some more time.

In the corresponding quarter last year PNB had posted net profit of Rs 306.5 crore.

"We have done Asset Quality Review (AQR) fully... The bank has provided Rs 11,380 crore for bad loans during the quarter including Rs 385 crore for discoms," PNB Managing Director Usha Ananthasubramanian told reporters.

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 12.9 percent in March from 8.47 percent in December, and 6.55 percent a year earlier.

The bank, however. saw its operating profit rise to Rs 3,228 crore, from Rs 3,203 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Total income during the quarter declined to Rs 13,276 crore, from Rs 13,456 crore a year ago.

Interest income also fell to Rs 10,824 crore, from Rs 11,651 crore in the fourth quarter of 2014-15. The net interest income fell to Rs 2,768 crore from Rs 3,792 crore.

On full year basis, the bank reported a loss of Rs 3,974 crore for 2015-16, as against a profit of Rs 3,062 crore in the previous fiscal.

However, full-year total income rose to Rs 54,301 crore, from Rs 52,206.09 crore in 2014-15.

Indian banks have seen a surge in bad loans after a clean up ordered by their regulator, the Reserve Bank of India. The central bank wanted banks to classify some troubled accounts as non-performing and make adequate provisions for those over the December and March quarters.