Banks' profits more than halve in Q1, NPAs nearly double

Everything that is wrong with Indian banks, especially public sector ones, can be seen from their results for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. 

Financial performance of 39 banks show that net profit declined by a hefty 54%, at Rs 8737 crore from Rs 18,992 in previous year. 

The decline in net profit during the first quarter of 2015 as against 2014 was at 7.4%. 

Going ahead, net interest income has marked a slowdown in Q1FY17 to 3.2% versus 9.3% of 2015, which was led by lackluster performance of interest income earned by these banks. The interest earned reported a gradual 0.4% rise from the 8.1% last year.

For these banks, growth in advances was lower at 7% compared to 9.6% last year.

Two sections moved hand-in-hand for these banks which was non-performing asset and provisions.

Banker's provision and contingencies nearly doubled to Rs 42,701 crore, a rise of 88% from Rs 22,739 crore of 2015 - which had rose by just 38% compared to 2014.

While the gross-NPAs  have jumped higher to 8.50% from 4.63% of 2015 and 3.97% of 2014. In this quarter, the gross-NPAs in terms of value stood at Rs 6,29,774 crore, increasing by 96.46% from Rs 3,20,554 crore in 2015.

However, other income was the only factor that performed robustly. The other income for these 39 banks rose to 31.7% - nearly double from 15.1% growth last year. 

CARE Ratings said that private banks have performed better compared to public sector, a performance which was expected by market analysts and experts. 

The focus area for this quarter has been on cleaning up their books, which is reflected in the accounts.

CARE Rating said that demand for credit has been relatively lower with industrial growth to takeoff and companies also preferring to use the commercial paper route where typically the cost works out to be lower.

It maintained status quo on NPAs and provisioning as the area of concern for the banks which will ultimately guide profits.