Lakshmi Vilas Bank mops up Rs 450 crore 'stressed' loans in demonetisation drive

CHENNIA: Private sector Lakshmi Vilas Bank has witnessed about Rs 450 crore worth of 'stressed' loans getting prepaid during the demonetisation drive announced by the Centre in November, according to a top bank official.
"It is an interesting quarter for anybody dealing with banks, especially when demonetisation was announced. There are positives as well as negatives for us to report," Lakshmi Vilas Bank MD and CEO, Parthasarathi Mukherjee said here.

Stating that the CASA (Current Account, Savings Account ratio) had improved significantly during the quarter ending December 31, 2016, he said, "we saw some of the stressed loans getting prepaid. It will be about Rs 450 crore".

On the negatives, he said the withdrawal of the notes affected the banks' credit growth.

"Demonetisation has affected the credit growth. But the bank's philosophy is focusing on quality growth", he said.

Stating that the bank witnessed fresh slippages totalling Rs 87.76 crore during the October-December 2016 quarter, he said one of the loans was from a large account in the shipping sector for about Rs 45 crore.

Mukherjee and senior colleagues were here to announce the bank's performance for the third quarter ending December 31, 2016.

The bank recorded a 70.1 per cent rise in Profit After Tax for the third quarter ending December 31, 2016 to Rs 78.38 crore from a PAT at Rs 46.07 crore during the corresponding period last year.

"The reasons for the increase in net profits was that our cost of funds have come down during the quarter, NIM (Net Interest Margin) has been stable and treasury operations have done exceedingly well", he said.