Yes Bank on Saturday reported its net profit at ₹452 crore for the quarter ending on March 31, Reuters reported. It was an increase from the net profit of ₹202 crore in the same period last year.
The profit had exceeded analysts’ average forecast of ₹341 crore. The private lender said that the Provisions and contingencies, or funds kept aside for potential bad loans, fell to ₹471 crore from ₹618 crore.
As per the report, Yes Bank had set aside more money in the year-earlier quarter after transferring bad loans to private equity firm J.C. Flowers.
The lender’s non-performing asset ratio improved to 1.7% at the end of March from 2% at the end of December. The bank’s other income – the fees earned from providing non-lending services to customers – rose 56.2% on the year, the report added.
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Yes Bank’s net interest income, the difference between the interest earned on loans and paid to depositors, rose 2.3% to ₹2,153 crore.
Net interest margin, a key profitability measure for banks, dropped to 2.4% from 2.80% a year earlier, and was flat every quarter.
Most Indian banks have been shoring up their deposit base amid tightened liquidity conditions in the banking system and healthy demand for loans. That has weighed on their lending margins. Yes Bank’s loans grew 12.1% on year, while deposits rose more than 22%, the Reuters report added.
Last week, HDFC Bank had announced its Q4 results, reporting a ₹17,257.87 crore net profit for January-March on a consolidated basis, over 2 per cent higher than that in the preceding quarter.
The lender’s consolidated net profit for FY24 stood at 64,060 crore. On a standalone basis, HDFC Bank reported a net profit of ₹16,511.85 crore in the January-March quarter as against ₹16,372.54 crore in the October-December quarter.
In July 2023, the bank merged its home loan-focused parent HDFC into itself.
The city-headquartered bank set aside over ₹10,900 crore in floating provisions towards any setbacks in the future, courtesy ₹7,340 crore gain on the sale of education loans focused Credila to private equity majors.