State Bank of India (SBI) reported a 41.3% jump in fourth-quarter net profit at ₹9,114 crore on the back of a significant improvement in asset quality during the three months ended March 31.
For the financial year, the state-run lender’s net profit grew 55.2% to ₹31,676 crore.
“FY22 was an extraordinary year,” Chairman Dinesh Khara said at a press conference. “It is heartening that the bank has been able to deliver reasonably good outcome in business, profitability and asset quality parameters,” he added.
“We have also created sufficient contingency funds against the restructured book to insulate our balance sheet from any future shock,” Mr. Khara added.
The return on equity as at the end of the fiscal stood at 13.92%, a 398 basis points improvement year-on-year and the bank was now targeting 15% return on equity, Mr. Khara said.
While domestic net interest margin in the fourth quarter increased 29 bps to 3.4%, the net interest income for the period rose by 15.3% from the year-earlier period.
Gross advances for the quarter rose 11% to ₹28,18,671 crore and the retail loan portfolio crossed ₹10 lakh crore. The total deposits grew 10.1%.
In FY22, the bank had an exceptional item of ₹7,418 crore towards provision on account of change in family pension rules.
During the quarter the bank’s loan loss provisions shrank 67.1% to ₹3,262 crore. For FY22, the provisions declined 48.3% to ₹14,087 crore, from ₹27,244 crore in the previous year.
In Q4, the bank’s Gross Non Performing Asset (GNPA) declined by 11.4% to ₹1,12,023 crore. The Net NPA shrank 24.% to ₹27,966 crore.
SBI said it had made a provision of ₹7,900 crore.
The bank said its capital adequacy ratio at the end of Q4 was 13.83% and return on assets increased by 19 bps to 0.67%.
The recent increase in benchmark interest rates by the RBI would not impact the bank’s asset quality or lead to any major stress, Mr. Khara asserted.
