Management firm on maintaining asset-quality: J&K Bank CEO

KL Report

SRINAGAR

Maintaining a strong and clean balance sheet has necessitated higher provisioning during Q1 thus putting pressure on profits, CEO and Chairman Mushtaq Ahmad said on Wednesday.

“This led to a sharp dip in our profits even though little late than many of our competitors and peers in the banking sector. However, we would continue with our growth momentum in the coming quarters and maintain our profitability along with net interest margin (NIM) during the current fiscal,” a company statement quoting Ahmad said.

“Since we all know that the country is yet to come out of economic slowdown completely; thus asset-quality pressures on banks have not abated even during the first quarter of current financial year. As such banks had to go for higher provisioning on account of fresh slippages to NPA category and additions to restructured assets,” it added.

So, strict focus of the bank for the next couple of quarters will be on asset quality monitoring and maintenance till the economic situation in the country improves, CEO further said.

Meanwhile, the bank shall continue to expand its branch network with focus in increasing low cost deposits and scaling up the flow of credit to priority sector in order to boost lending to agriculture and allied activities besides retail handicrafts and SME sectors, he said.

Meanwhile, the J&K Bank Wednesday posted a net profit of Rs 130.05 crore for the quarter ended June 2014, a company statement said on Wednesday.

The Bank announced its reviewed financial results for the quarter ended June 2014 today following the approval of its Board of Directors at a meeting held here at Corporate Headquarters.

“The Bank’s operating profit for Q1 is Rs 447.52 crore as against Rs 480.99 crore recorded during the corresponding period of previous year.  The Deposits grew by 8.62 percent for Q1 to stand at *Rs 63651.94 crore as against Rs 58601.09 crore for Q1 FY 13-14. The advances have increased by 13.11 percent to Rs 44430.73 crore from Rs 39282.20 crore as recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year,” the statement informed.

The total business of the Bank is up by 10.42 percent when compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, it said.

“The bank’s Non-interest income improved to Rs 130.99 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 92.23 crore recorded during the corresponding quarter of the previous year, while as net interest income stood at Rs 637.69 crore as against Rs 654.89 crore,” the statement said.

“The Gross NPA ratio of the bank stood at 4.16 percent for the quarter, while as the Net NPA ratio is 2.18 percent. The NPA Coverage ratio stood at 55.08 percent.”

“The Net Interest Margin (NIM) remained good at 3.63 percent as against 4.20 percent recorded for the corresponding period of the previous year. The Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank under BASEL 11 is 13.28 percent as on June 30, 2014,” it further added.

During the quarter, the bank added 18 Business Units and 25 ATMs to its expanding network across the state, the statement concluded.