Cutting deposit costs, improving CASA key: PSB

Public sector bank Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) reported 10.8 percent rise in net profit and total income of Rs 2,303 crore in the July-September quarter. Non-performing assets (NPAs) improved in the second quarter to 4.92 percent from 5.08 percent in the year-ago period. Fresh slippages for the Q2 were worth Rs 545 crore, mostly in MSME and agriculture sector, Jatinderbir Singh, CMD, Punjab & Sind Bank told CNBC-TV18.Singh said the bank’s focus has been on and will be on reducing cost of deposits and improving current accounts, saving accounts (CASA). Below is the verbatim transcript of Jatinderbir Singh’s interview with Ekta Batra & Anuj Singhal on CNBC-TV18. Ekta: Your gross non-performing assets (NPAs) have improved this quarter, 4.92 versus 5.17 percent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) can you tell us what the internals look like. What were fresh slippages if you compare them to the last quarter and what was any sort of sale of loan to asset reconstruction companies if that took place this quarter? A: As you have noticed from our balance sheet that Punjab and Sindh Bank has registered quite encouraging growth on various parameters. For example our total business risen by 5.7 percent.  Ekta: Can you take us through the details of the numbers for example what were the fresh slippages this quarter compared to the last quarter? A: The focus of our strategy in the last one year has been to reduce the cost of deposit and also improve current and saving account (CASA). On the NPA front we have been able to reduce the NPAs to 4.92 percent in the recent quarterly result and that is an improvement over our year to year numbers.  This has been possible largely because of our closed monitoring. Fresh slippages have been there because in the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector and relatively speaking to some extent in agriculture but on the whole we have been able to improve the profile on NPAs.  Ekta: What was the amount? A: The fresh slippage was Rs 545 crore that must be figure for this period.  Ekta: Versus last quarter how much? A: Last quarter the figure was year to year Rs 1,024 crore.