Canara Bank net profit jumps over two-fold to `1,502 cr in Dec quarter

Mumbai: State-run Canara Bank on Thursday reported a more that two-fold jump in its profit after tax at Rs 1,502 crore for the quarter ended December 2021, helped by a rise in net interest income (NII) and lower provisions.

Its net profit stood at Rs 696 crore in the same quarter of the preceding financial year.

"The growth in profit was 115.80 per cent. During the quarter, we concentrated on NII as the treasury income was to be impacted due to hardening of yields.

"Our strategy was to grow net interest income to compensate for the deficiency in the treasury income. This strategy worked well and we could increase NII by 14 per cent y-o-y," the bank's Managing Director and CEO L V Prabhakar told reporters.

NII grew to Rs 6,946 crore in the December quarter from Rs 6,087 crore in the year-ago period.

Net interest margins (NIM) stood at 2.83 per cent as against 2.79 per cent.

Gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) declined to 7.80 per cent from 7.46 per cent, but net NPAs increased to 2.86 per cent from 2.64 per cent.

Slippages in the quarter stood at Rs 2,699 crore. Total cash recovery, including recovery from written off accounts, was Rs 2,784 crore.