BoB, UCO Bank report record losses amidst zooming NPAs

State-run banks closed fiscal 2016 with huge losses, with Bank of Baroda reporting a net loss of Rs5,395,55 crore for the financial year ended 31 March 2016, while UCO Bank reported a net loss of Rs2,799.25 crore during the year.

Bank of Baroda said on Friday it closed last fiscal with a net loss of Rs5,395.55 crore compared with a net profit of Rs3,398.43 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015.

In a regulatory filing in BSE, the bank said its total income, however, went up to Rs49,060.13 crore last fiscal as against Rs47,365.55 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015.

It was the RBI-mandated increased provisioning for bad loans at Rs15,513.65 crore against Rs4,494.50 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015 that played the villan for BoB as well.

BoB said its gross and net bad loans as of 31 March this year stood at Rs40,521.04 crore and Rs19,406,46 crore, respectively, as against Rs16,261.45 crore and Rs8,969.45 crore, respectively on 31 March 2015.

The Kolkata-based UCO Bank reported a net loss of Rs2,799.25 crore the last fiscal compared with a net profit of Rs1,137.80 crore for 2014-15.

UCO Bank registered a net loss of Rs1,715.16 crore in the quarter ended March compared with a net profit of Rs209.28 crore in the year-ago period.

The loss was attributed to high provisions to cover huge surge in bad loans and low net interest income. The bank reported a net loss in the December quarter too.

In the quarter under review, the bank made a provision of Rs.2,344.88 crore for bad loans, up 142 per cent from Rs968.38 crore provisioned in the year-ago-period.

Total income of the bank decreased from Rs21,362.54 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015 to Rs20,157.28 crore for the year ended 31 March 2016.

The lender's asset quality during the quarter deteriorated significantly with the non-performing assets (NPAs) in absolute term soaring by nearly 104 per cent to Rs20,907.73 crore compared to Rs10,265.05 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Its gross NPA as a percentage of total loans rose to 15.43 per cent in the fourth quarter from 6.76 per cent a year ago.

The lender's operating profit dipped to Rs567.66 crore during the quarter from Rs.1,227.27 crore as net interest income (NII) fell by close to 27 per cent at Rs.933.11 crore and other income also declined by 41.5 percent at Rs.387.80 crore, the bank said in a filing to Bombay Stock Exchange.

According to the filing, the bank said pursuant to the asset quality review (AQR) carried out by the Reserve Bank of India, the bank made classification of advances and provisions which was required to be done by 31 March 2016 as suggested.

The central bank had asked lenders to make adequate provisions for the stressed assets over the third and fourth quarters of the last fiscal.

At the end of March quarter, bank's net NPA ratio rose to 9.09 per cent from 4.30 per cent during the year-ago period. Its non-performing loan provisioning coverage ratio stood at 53.87 per cent as on 31 March 2016.

Bank's scrip on Friday closed at Rs34.05, down 5.94 per cent on BSE from the previous close.