New Delhi, Aug 3 (IANS): Government-owned Bank of India on Saturday reported a 10 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 1,703 crore in the April-June quarter of the current financial year, compared to Rs 1,551 crore in the same quarter last year.

Net Interest Income (NII), a key indicator of core income, posted a 6.1 per cent rise, to touch Rs 6,275.8 crore, from Rs 5,914 crore in the same quarter last year.

Bank of India also reported an improvement in its asset quality during the first quarter with Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPA) declining to 4.62 per cent of total advances from 4.98 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Net NPA ratio also showed improvement, dropping to 0.99 per cent from 1.22 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The total deposits of the bank increased by 9.74 per cent during the quarter to Rs 7.38 lakh crore as of June 30, 2024, from Rs 6.97 lakh crore as of June 30, 2023.

However, the public sector bank’s CASA deposits came down to 42.68 per cent of total deposits at the end of the quarter from 44.52 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year.

CASA deposit is the amount of money that gets deposited in the current and savings accounts of bank customers. It is the cheapest and major source of funds for banks which leads to higher interest margins and profits.

The gross advances by the Bank of India rose by 15.82 per cent to Rs 5.86 lakh crore during the first quarter from Rs 5.18 lakh crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

The bank's lending to the agriculture sector went up by a robust 22.2 per cent during the quarter to Rs 88,977 crore while lending to MSMEs also increased by a double-digit 13.1 per cent.

Retail loans, which bring in higher returns for banks, recorded a 24.5 per cent jump to Rs 1.15 lakh crore during the quarter.