NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, FEB 12
The 116-years old Kumbakonam-based City Union Bank Ltd. (CUB) has posted an 8% growth in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 2019 to Rs.192 crore from Rs.178.10 crore on a reasonable growth in total income and lower tax expense.
Announcing the performance of the third quarter of 2020-2021 here on Wednesday, CUB Managing Director and CEO N. Kamakodi said that the net interest income rose 2% to Rs. 427 crore and other income 19 % to Rs. 142 crore. Net interest margin stood at 3.96%. The capital adequacy ratio was 15.41%.
Provision coverage ratio stood at 65%. Provisions for the period were Rs. 116 crore.
Total business grew 11% to Rs. 73,640 crore while CASA deposits increased 10%, which was 23% of the total deposits.
During the period under review, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) grew to 3.5%, totalling Rs.1,185 crore from 2.91% and net NPAs to 1.95%, totalling Rs. 649 crore, from 1.74%.
“Slippage during the quarter was Rs. 230 crore and recovery was Rs. 127 crore and the write-off was Rs. 52 crore.
While replying to a query, Kamakodi said the biggest slippage of Rs. 70 crore related to paper industries, while the rest are all spread across various other industries.
He said during the third quarter, 16 accounts worth Rs. 86.93 crore were restructured. During the nine months ended December 2019, 133 accounts, accounting to Rs. 199.80 crore, were restructured and fully provided for.
Kamakodi said overall, financial performance was satisfactory, though there were ‘headwinds due to general economic conditions.
Chat bot “Ask Lakshmi’’ App received overwhelming response
The tech-savvy bank has launched its country’s first Chat bot “Ask Lakshmi’’ App on November 23 during its 116-th founder’s day celebrations in Chennai. The App was launched by the Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman in Chennai at the founder’s day function.
The All-in-One chat-bot “Ask Lakshmi’’ App started fully functional from Pongal and it has tremendous response from the customers and non customers, Kamakodi said.
The Chat-bot which interacts in Tamil, English, Hindi and Telugu has so far handled 1.15 lakh customers and expected that it would improve further, so that the work burden of the bank staff will considerably lowered, Kamakodi hopes.
Officials said that soon, the bank would add Kannada language in addition to the existing four languages in the All-in-One App.
Plans to raise branch count to 700 before the end of March
The bank total branches as on today is 665 across the nation and planning to add 35 more branches before the end of March this year. The 700-th branch would be opened in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh during the third week of March, Kamakodi said.
