PNB hopes to recover Rs 16,000 crore from bad loans

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said the bank is back to being profitable and it has reported over Rs 300 crore profit in the first quarter this financial year

Hyderabad: Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second-largest bank following the merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India, is hoping to recover about Rs 16,000 crore by March end next year. This includes about Rs 8,000 crore through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under IBC cases, said  CHSS Mallikarjuna Rao, its Managing Director and CEO.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said the bank is back to being profitable and it has reported over Rs 300 crore profit in the first quarter this financial year. It also had profits for the March quarter. “We hope to continue this during the rest of the financial year in spite of the ongoing disruption in the economy,” he said.

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Following the merger and integration of the two banks with PNB, it has now become the second-largest bank in the country with a network of about 11,000 branches. It has a good presence in the North, North East, and Central zones and is now looking to up its presence in West and South India.  “We will not close any branch because and will use the RBI license to relocate in a nearby location.”

He dismissed the reports of possibilities of it taking over LVB. Referring to the integration of two other banks with PNB, he said the business and human integration has been completed and it expected to complete the tech integration by March. This will enable it to play a larger role in digital services, the top official said.

On NPAs, he said the bank’s NPAs will grow two or three per cent even as RBI has hinted that the NPAs across the industry are likely to grow 4-6 per  cent due to reduced business on account of Covid.

PNB has launched an outreach programme Gram Sampark Abhyan wherein 526 villages were covered. The plan is to cover 25,000 villages across the country by December 2020 under this initiative. The bank will seek to understand the banking requirements of people and offer the required products.

It had 141 branches in Telangana and nearly the same number in Andhra Pradesh. The total business from Telangana was about Rs 3,700 crore

The total business of the Bank is pegged at ₹ 18 lakh crore, post amalgamation, consisting of deposits of ₹10.75 lakh crore and advances of ₹ 7.22 lakh crore.

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