Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has emerged as the top performer among public sector lenders in terms of loan growth in percentage terms during the second quarter of 2022-23. The Pune-headquartered lender recorded a 28.62 per cent increase in gross advances at Rs 1,48,216 crore at the end of September 2022, according to published quarterly numbers of public sector banks (PSBs).
It was followed by the Union Bank of India with a 21.54 per cent growth to Rs 7,52,469 crore. The country's largest lender State Bank of India stood at the third spot with an 18.15 per cent jump in gross advances. However, SBI's total loans were about 17 times higher at Rs 25,47,390 crore as compared to Rs 1,48,216 crore of BoM in absolute terms. With regard to Retail-Agriculture-MSME (RAM) loans, BoM recorded the highest growth of 22.31 per cent followed by Bank of Baroda with 19.53 per cent and SBI at 16.51 per cent during the period under review.
As far as low-cost Current Account Savings Account (CASA) deposits are concerned, BoM topped the chart with 56.27 per cent followed by Central Bank of India at 50.99 per cent. BoM and SBI with 3.55 per cent Net Interest Margin (NIM), a key profitability parameter, stood at the top among PSBs. It was followed by Bank of India at 3.49 per cent and Central Bank of India at 3.44 per cent. BoM and SBI were in the lowest quartile as far as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and net NPAs were concerned, according to an analysis of the quarterly financial numbers published by public sector lenders.
As per the analysis, gross NPAs reported by BoM and SBI were 3.40 per cent and 3.52 per cent of their total advances, respectively, in the second quarter. Net NPAs of these banks came down to 0.68 per cent and 0.80 per cent, respectively, at the end of September 2022. Moreover, BoM has a 16.71 per cent Capital Adequacy Ratio, the highest among PSBs, followed by Canara Bank at 16.51 per cent and Indian Bank at 16.15 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2022-23.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week said the government's efforts to reduce bad loans have yielded results with all the 12 PSBs reporting a 50 per cent jump in combined net profit at Rs 25,685 crore in the second quarter. In the first half of FY23, the cumulative net profit of all PSBs increased by 32 per cent to Rs 40,991 crore.
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