PSBs’ losses widen 3.5 times in Q2

State-owned banks saw their cumulative losses widen nearly three-and-a-half times to Rs 14,716.2 crore in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal due to mounting bad loans.

These 21 public sector banks had posted a net loss of Rs 4,284.45 crore in the September quarter of 2017-18.

On a quarterly basis, however, their performance was somewhat better as they narrowed down their losses by about Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 14,716.2 crore in the quarter from Rs 16,614.9 crore in April-June 2018.

Higher provisioning towards bad loans or non-performing assets (NPAs) had impacted the balance sheets of these PSU lenders.

As per the financial results posted by the banks, the biggest loss was posted by scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) Rs 4,532.35 crore in the September quarter of the current fiscal as against a profit of Rs 560.58 crore in the year-ago period.

PNB's provisioning for bad loans and contingencies rose to Rs 9,757.90 crore for the quarter from Rs 2,440.79 crore a year ago. Of this, the provisions for bad loans or NPAs were Rs 7,733.27 crore as against Rs 2,693.78 crore a year ago.

The country’s second-largest PSU bank suffered huge losses after the detection of a massive fraud to the tune of nearly Rs 14,000 crore in March quarter this year, allegedly committed by diamond jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his associates. The bank had to make provisioning for the losses. IDBI Bank posted a loss of Rs 3,602.50 crore and Allahabad Bank Rs 1,822.71 crore in the September quarter. IDBI Bank's loss was Rs 197.84 crore in the year-ago quarter while Allahabad Bank had posted a profit of Rs 70.2 crore.

The narrowing of the cumulative net losses on quarter-onquarter basis could be mainly attributed to good performance by State Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce.

SBI, which had incurred a net loss of Rs 4,875.85 crore in the June quarter, posted a profit of Rs 944.87 crore for July-September. Oriental Bank of Commerce posted a profit of Rs 101.74 crore as against a net loss of Rs 393.21 crore in the June quarter of the current fiscal. The combined loss of these 21 banks was Rs 62,681.27 crore in the quarter ending March 2018.