Syndicate Bank's FY 2006-07 net up 33 per cent

Bangalore: Syndicate Bank has reported a 33.5 per cent increase in net profit for the financial year 2006-07 at Rs716 crore.

The bank's board has recommended a final dividend of 13 per cent for the financial year 2006-07 taking the total dividend for the year to 28 per cent inclusive of the interim dividend of 15 per cent.

The bank's profits were on the back of a 40 per cent increase in advances which were at Rs52,839 crore against Rs37,660 crore the previous year. The increase in advances with the rise in yield on assets by 56 basis points over FY06 helped the bank report a top line of Rs6,659 crore against Rs4,612 crore. Interest income, as a result, rose to Rs6,040 crore (Rs4,050 crore).

The bank's deposit mobilisation also increased to Rs78,634 crore, a 46.64 per cent increase over the previous year. This translated into an average interest cost of just about 4.94 per cent. This was largely on account of its large pool of low cost deposits. In the financial year 2006-07 alone, Syndicate bank had opened about two million low accounts.