State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Wednesday reported a 66 per cent decline in standalone net profit at Rs 202 crore for the quarter ended March 2022 due to higher amount parked towards provisioning, even as the NPA levels declined.
The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 586 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
Total standalone income during the January-March quarter stood at Rs 21,095 crore, down from Rs 21,386 crore in the same period of 2021-21, PNB said in a regulatory filing.
For the full fiscal 2021-22, standalone net profit rose to Rs 3,456.96 crore as against Rs 2,021.62 crore in FY21, the bank said.
The asset quality of the city-headquartered lender showed improvement, with the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) falling to 11.78 per cent of the gross advances as of March 2022, from 14.12 per cent a year ago.
Net NPAs or bad loans too declined to 4.8 per cent from 5.73 per cent.
However, the lender kept a higher provision for bad loans and contingencies for Q4 FY22 at Rs 4,851.47 crore, as against Rs 3,540.32 crore earlier.
The board of directors has recommended dividend of Re 0.64 per equity share (i.e. 32 per cent) of face value of Rs 2 each for 2021-22, subject to shareholders’ approval at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.