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M. Ramesh

CHENNAI, April 23

PUNJAB National Bank's net profit for the year ended March 31, 2002, is expected to be around Rs 550 crore, as against Rs 463.64 crore for the previous year, which then, works out to a growth of around 18 per cent.

The increase in the net profit is in spite of doubling of provisioning, the bank's Director Mr K. S. Sampath, told Business Line today. (Last year, the figure against `other provisions and contingencies' stood at Rs 370.74 crore.) According to information made available by the bank, aggregate deposits rose 15.1 per cent to Rs 63,786 crore, from Rs 55,409 crore in the previous year. Total credit grew by 23 per cent to Rs 36,587 crore last year, from Rs 29,744 crore in the previous year. Total business has thus crossed the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark.

Credit deposit ratio stood at 57.36 per cent, up from 53.68 per cent in the previous year. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances also declined to 6.02 per cent, from 6.69 per cent in the previous year, and 8.52 per cent in the year before.

Punjab National Bank's Executive Director, Mr T. S. Narayanasami, said that the bank proposed to launch its debit card soon. He said that the card would be more than a debit card — it would be a combination of a credit card, debit card and an ATM card. Mr Narayanasami also spoke of proposals to open representative offices abroad, which would eventually become full-fledged overseas branches.

At the inauguration of the bank's 10th ATM here, Mr Narayanasami, said that the bank had tied up with Infosys, and would connect-up 2,500 (of its 4,000 branches and extension counters) in the next three years.

`Pious' intentions Pilliar Patti, Namakkal, Tirupathi — what is common about these places in the South? Well, they are all holy places, where pilgrims throng.

But the other commonality is that the Punjab National Bank would have its branches in these places by the end of this week. "We are becoming pious after our public issue," the bank's Executive Director, Mr T.S. Narayanasami, says with a chuckle.

But banter apart, the bank sees merit in emphasising on the South, where it has only 195 branches and 20 extension counters, as against 3,585 branches and 406 extension counters all over the country. The South, then, has only 5 per cent of the bank's national branch network.

The total business from the South, in 2001-02, amounted to Rs 5,356 crore (Rs 2,319 crore of deposits and Rs 3,037 crore of advances)— which is also around 5 per cent of the bank's total business of around Rs 1 lakh crore.

But, the net profit from the South (Rs 67.20 crore) works out to over 10 per cent of the bank's global net profit of around Rs 550 crore.

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