Bank of Baroda’s third-quarter net profit up 19 per cent at ₹4,579 crore

Bank of Baroda (BoB) reported a 19 per cent year-on-year (yoy) increase in third-quarter standalone net profit at ₹4,579 crore, against₹3,853 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The public sector bank’s bottomline was supported by a substantial decline in total provisions (other than tax) and contingencies, even as net interest income (NII) nudged up and other income declined.

NII (difference between interest earned and interest expended) moved up about 3 per cent y-o-y to ₹11,101 crore (₹10,818 crore in the year-ago quarter).

Other income, comprising fee-based income, treasury income and other non-interest income, declined about 21 per cent y-o-y to ₹2,810.5 crore (₹3,552 crore).

Total provisions (other than tax) and contingencies fell 72 per cent y-o-y to ₹666 crore (₹2,404 crore). Under this head, provisions for bad loans and bad debts written-off rose 23 per cent y-o-y to ₹1,007 crore (₹817 crore).

The global net interest margin (NIM) declined to 3.1 per cent from 3.37 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) position improved to 3.08 per cent of gross advances as on December-end 2023, against 4.53 per cent as of December-end 2022.

The net NPA position, too, improved to 0.7 per cent of net advances, against 0.99 per cent earlier.

Global advances rose 13.57 per cent y-o-y to stand at ₹10,49,327 crore as of December-end 2023, with domestic advances growing 13.4 per cent (to ₹8,62,086 crore).

Within domestic advances, organic retail advances reported the highest growth of 22 per cent, followed by agriculture and organic MSME (12.6 per cent each) and corporate (10.2 per cent).

Global deposits were up 8.3 per cent at ₹12,45,300 crore, with domestic deposits increasing 6.3 per cent (to ₹10,67,371 crore).

CASA (current account, savings account) deposits declined to 40.69 per cent of domestic deposits as of December-end 2023, against 41.62 per cent as of December-end 2022.