CSB Bank reports highest-ever profit for FY22 at Rs458.5cr

By CL Jose

Lending in Kerala continues to be low despite RBI reminders

KOCHI/May 06-2022: The Thrissur-based CSB Bank has announced its highest ever full-year net profit at Rs458.49 crore for the financial year closing on March 31, 2022 (FY22), effectively more than doubling the profit of Rs218.40 crore the bank reported for the previous year.

For the fourth quarter, the net profit has grown 205 per cent to Rs130.67 crore compared with Rs42.89 crore the bank has registered for the same quarter last year.

Net Interest Income (NII) for FY 22 stood at Rs1153.30 crore posting an increase of Rs211.91 crore or 22.51 per cent year on year (YoY). In Q4 FY 22, the NII stood at Rs303.83 crore as against Rs275.70 crore in Q4 FY 21, a growth of 10.20 per cent.

Handsome yield on advance

Yield on advances improved by 24 basis points YoY to 11.21 per cent even as the average advances grew by 14 per cent. And on the other hand, cost of deposits reduced by 76 basis points to 4.31 per cent while average CASA, the low- cost deposits, surged by 22 per cent.

The bank is sitting on a very comfortable capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 25.90 per cent, virtually meaning that the lender need not have to worry about its capital even if it wishes to double its asset base.

While the gross NPA has dropped from Rs393.49 crore to Rs289.51 crore on a year-on-year basis, the net NPA has declined from 168.81 crore to Rs106.89 crore.

On percentage terms, while gross NPA fell from 2.68 per cent to 1.81 per cent, the net NPA base contracted from 1.17 per cent to as low as 0.68 per cent during the said period.

The bank said that in the gross NPA, Rs28.81 crore is gold NPA. Pralay Mondal (Seen in the picture), Managing Director & CEO (Interim) of the bank said that the asset quality concerns, which crept up due to the reversal of gold portfolio LTV regime and the Covid related economic slowdown could be managed well and the year ended with negative credit costs.

“Bank is continuing with the accelerated provisioning policy. The better management of costs and yields helped in sustaining an improved net interest margin (NIM) and return on assets (RoA),” Mondal said.

Gold loan book at Rs6570 crore as of March end, 2022, accounted for 41.55 per cent of the advances at Rs15,814.68 crore as on March 31, 2022.

While the bank raised 62 per cent of the its deposit from Kerala, the lending in Kerala has been confined to about 30 per cent only. In fact, the RBI director has time and again instructed the bank to improve its lending volume in Kerala.