BoB overtakes PNB as second most profitable public sector bank

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped PNB to become the country's second largest public sector lender in terms of annual profit.

Mumbai-based BoB's net profit crossed Rs 5,000 crore during 2011-12, a rise of 18 per cent from the previous year.

Punjab National Bank's (PNB) net profit rose by 10.2 per cent to Rs 4,884 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2012.

The country's largest bank State Bank of India in the first nine months of 2011-12 has posted a net profit of Rs 8,243.64 crore. Its profit in 2010-11 stood Rs 8,264.5 crore .

BoB Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya had said last week the bank had been able to post sound growth despite economic challenges like industrial slowdown, high inflation and elevated interest rates.

During the year, BoB's gross NPA rose to 1.53 per cent of total advances in 2011-12 from 1.36 per cent in the previouis year.

Significantly, the gross NPA for PNB as a proportion of advances went up to 2.93 per cent against 1.79 per cent at the end of March last year.

Bangalore-based Canara Bank retained the third slot among the PSBs despite 18 per cent dip in profit at Rs 3,282.72 crore in FY'12 against Rs 4,025.89 crore in the previous fiscal.

As regards fourth quarter is concerned, BoB had posted net profit of Rs 1,518.18 crore, while PNB's bottom line rose to Rs 1,424.06 crore.

Total income of BoB during the quarter rose by 25.8 per cent to Rs 9,016 crore from Rs 7,168.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Mumbai-based lender which reported a tax gain of around Rs 322 crore in the fourth quarter, posted a 7 per cent rise in net interest income (NII) to Rs 2,797 crore.

Similarly, net interest margin stood at 3.44 per cent for domestic operations and 2.96 per cent for international operations during the fourth quarter of 2011-12.