Q1 FY20 Ushers Good News For Scam-Hit PNB: Reports Net Profit Of Rs 1,019 Crore Despite Marginal Rise In NPAs

Having faced two turbulent years, FY20 has begun on a good note for the Punjab National Bank (PNB) with net profit for the first quarter standing at Rs 1,019 crore, ANI has reported.

The bank had reported a net loss of Rs 940 crore in the year-ago period with net loss for the FY19 being Rs 9,975.49 crore. The loss in FY18 was even higher at Rs 12,282.82 crore with the discovery of the Rs 14,000 crore Nirav Modi fraud.

The profit has been reported despite a rise in gross NPAs to 16.49 per cent against 15.5 per cent in the last quarter. Meanwhile, net NPAs have fallen to 7.17 per cent against 10.58 per cent year-on-year.

The bank’s housing sector loans have reportedly risen 29.64 per cent year-on-year to Rs 54,451 crore with the bank generating fresh business of Rs 80,000 crore in the quarter. The basic dilute earnings have been reported at Rs 2.21 per share against negative Rs 3.41 per cent in the year-ago period.

PNB has also released a statement on the NPAs, "The bank has reported one loan account in the power and steel sector under borrowal fraud category to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during second quarter of current financial year involving an amount of Rs 3,760.62 crore outstanding as on June 30, 2019.”

"The account was already under NPA category since FY2016 and provision amounting to Rs 1,880.44 crore was held in the account as at June 30, 2016. This is a consortium advance of 33 lenders which is near resolution stage under NCLT. The remaining provision in the fraud account will be done by the bank in terms of extant RBI guidelines," the statement read.