Bad loan provisioning almost wipes out SBI's Q2 net profit

The country's largest lender State Bank of India on Friday recorded a 99.6 per cent dip in consolidated net profit at Rs 20.7 crore for the September quarter on account of a 3-fold jump in bad loan provisioning.

Its profit was Rs 4,991.70 crore during the same quarter of the last financial year.

However, its total income on a consolidated basis rose to Rs 72,918.4 crore during the second quarter of the current fiscal, from Rs 66,828.8 crore in the same period of 2015-16, State Bank India said in filing to stock exchanges.

On a standalone basis, SBI's profit declined 35 per cent to Rs 2,538.32 crore, from Rs 3,879.07 crore. Total income was Rs 50,742.9 crore as against Rs 46,854.8 crore in the same period a year ago.

Provisioning for non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans on group basis rose nearly three-fold to Rs 15,326.91 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 5,330.96 crore in the same period of last financial year.

As of September 30, the bank's gross NPAs deteriorated to 7.14 per cent of gross advances, compared with 4.15 per cent year a year ago. Similarly, the net NPAs rose to 4.19 per cent from 2.14 per cent.

In absolute terms, its gross NPAs crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark to Rs 1,05,782.96 crore, from Rs 56,834.28 crore at the second quarter in the previous fiscal, nearly 100 per cent increase.

Net NPAs increased to Rs 60,013.45 crore as against Rs 28,591.96 crore.

Image: SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya. Photograph: Reuters.