‘We have aspirations to grow at around 20%’

Thrissur-based South Indian Bank has announced its third-quarter results, with growth of 9.6 per cent in net profit at ~111 crore during the quarter ended December 31 as compared to the corresponding quarter previous year. The total income was ~1,737 crore as compared to ~1,561 crore during the corresponding quarter last year. During the quarter, the Bank has seen demonetisation helping its current and savings account growth and digital transactions. In an interaction with V G MATHEW, managing director and chief executive officer of The South Indian Bank Ltd spoke to

Gireesh Babu, about demonetisation impact, rights issue and future plans. Edited excerpts:

How do you see the quarterly results? Was the bottom line in line with your expectations?

We have done reasonably well, Operating profit on a year-onyear (y-o-y) basis is up 43 per cent. Profit after tax is also good at 9.6 per cent. A lot of it was because of the treasury. Treasury and forex together is almost 142 per cent y-o-y growth. In other income also we have done well. Almost 51.8 per cent increase was there y-oy in other areas of fee income.

What is the impact of demonetisation during the quarter?

We had a visible positive impact on the liability side. Our current and savings account ratio has been a bit of weak point, which we are working on regularly. Every quarter it was growing at around 23 per cent and this quarter it was up to 25.9 per cent. There is a current and savings account growth of 33 per cent y-o-y.

The digital transactions has more than doubled on a daily average after demonetisation. Average daily card transaction numbers before demonetisation, between April to November was 17,184 per day. From November 9 to January 8, it has grown to 53,779. This is over two-fold growth. Of all digital transactions including — mobile, internet and card transactions put together the average daily transaction number was 33,841 before demonetisation. After demonetisation, this has grown to 78,478 transactions per day. Our non-performing asset (NPA) levels are remaining the same more or less the same.

The branch network was under pressure during November and December, and there were some difficulties in some transactions. Loan growth would have been a little better if this pressure is not there.