Bank of Baroda on Friday reported a Rs 1,778.77-crore net profit for the quarter ended March 2022, against a net loss of Rs 1,046.50 crore for the year-ago period. The lender reported a strong growth in net interest income (NII).
The NII grew 21.18% year-on-year to Rs 8,611.67 crore, from Rs 7,106.62 crore in the same period last year. Non-interest income, however, witnessed an over 47% y-o-y decline at Rs 2,522.29 crore. The net interest margin (NIM) rose 36 basis points at 3.08% from 2.72% in the fourth quarter of FY21. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it saw a 5-bps decline from 3.13%.
The bank’s provisions (other than tax) rose 5.10% to Rs 3,736.38 crore for the period under review, compared with Rs 3,555.06 crore for Q4FY21.
The asset quality improved as gross NPA reduced to Rs 54,059 crore in Q4FY22 from Rs 66,671 crore in Q4FY21, and gross NPA ratio improved to 6.61% from 8.87%. Gross NPA stood at Rs 55,997 crore in Q3FY22.
While domestic current account deposits stood at Rs 68,780 crore, registering a growth of 11.6% on a y-o-y basis, domestic savings bank deposits grew by 11.4% to Rs 3,41,343 crore. The overall domestic CASA grew 11.4%.
Speaking at a virtual press meet after declaring the results, MD & CEO Sanjiv Chadha said the bank made it sure that the asset growth happened in those segments which continued to give it good margins. “On the deposit side, our deposit growth was actually slower because we wanted to make sure that we do not gather excessive deposits at a time when the growth is challenged. The deposit growth largely came from CASA deposits,” Chadha said.
On the asset side, he said, there were challenges in the corporate side in terms of margins because of liquidity positions. “And, therefore, most of our growth actually came from other than corporates – it came from retail. Car loans grew by 20% and unsecured personal loans, which have the best margins, rose by 108%. I think this was really the base on which we were able to improve our NIM in a year, where liquidity was abundant and margins were challenged,” he said.