Citi net up by over 18% to Rs 3,423 crore in FY15

Foreign lender Citi India reported an 18.3 percent increase in net profit here today at Rs 3,423 crore in the financial year 2015. The Wall Street bank, which is among the largest foreign banks in the country, had posted a net of Rs 2,893 crore in the past financial year.

Citi India Chief Financial Officer Niraj Parekh expressed satisfaction at the performance saying, it comes in spite of the "uneven" and "unpredictable" growth scenario in the economy.

"During this period, our performance has been driven by balanced growth across each of our consumer and institutional businesses," he said. The bank's total assets, including credit extended to corporate clients from offshore branches, stood at Rs 1,80,028 crore.

The overall asset quality improved during the year, with net non-performing assets ratio improving to 0.4 percent from the 1.24 percent in the year-ago period.

A senior official explained last year one specific account slipped into NPA, but it had bank guarantees, which the lender revoked, leading to the strong improvement in the asset quality.

"If we exclude this account, net NPA improved by 0.10 percent over the fiscal to 0.40 percent, the official said. Loans grew 7.7 percent, a notch slower than the system's 8.6 percent, while deposits were up 13.5 percent.

Parekh said this was balanced on the both corporate and consumer segments, and discipline and focus on execution continues to be the core strategy for it. Pre-tax profit rose 15.8 percent to Rs 5,923 crore as against the previous year's Rs 5,113 crore.

As part of the priority sector lending obligations, the bank extended a credit of Rs 6,208 crore to agriculture, the weaker sections and micro and small enterprises, and Rs 10,572 crore towards export credit.