New Delhi, May 9 (IANS): Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday reported a 160 per cent surge in its net profit to Rs 3,010 crore in the Jan-March quarter of the financial year 2023-24 compared to the corresponding figure of Rs 1,159 crore same quarter last year.

On a sequential basis, the state-run lender's net profit jumped by 35.4 per cent compared to the Oct-Dec quarter

The bank’s board of directors have recommended a dividend of Rs 1.50 per equity share (75 per cent) for the year ended March 31, 2024 subject to requisite approvals, according to a PNB statement.

The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio declined to 5.73 per cent of total loans, as against 6.24 per cent a quarter ago, and 8.74 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Its net NPA stood at 0.73 per cent as of March 31, 2024, as against 0.96 per cent in the previous quarter and 2.72 per cent in the year-ago period.

In absolute terms, gross NPA declined by Rs 20,985 crore to Rs 56,343 crore as of March 2024 from Rs 77,328 crore as of March 2023. Net NPA declined by Rs 15,786 crore from March 2023 to Rs 6,799 crore as on March 2024.

The bank’s Net Interest Income (NII) increased to Rs 10,363 Cr in Q4 FY’24 from Rs 10,293 Cr in Q3 FY’24 and Rs 9,499 Cr in Q4 FY’23 showing an improvement of 9.1per cent on Y-o-Y basis.

PNB’s domestic net interest margin stands at 3.25 per cent in Q4 FY24 while the global yield on advances improved year-on-year by 0.5 per cent to 8.44 per cent in Q4 FY24.

PNB also recorded a 3.5 per cent increase in savings deposits to Rs 4.80 lakh crore while current deposits grew by Rs 3,565 crore as of March 2024 to Rs 72,201 crore on Quarter-on-Quarter basis.

Low-cost CASA deposits increased to Rs 5.53 lakh crore recording a on-year growth of 2.7 per cent.

Total retail credit increased by 12.6 per cent to Rs 2.23 lakh crore in March 2024.