Bank of Maharashtra Q4 Results: Net Profit Jumps 45% , Rs 1.40 Dividend Declared

Public sector lender Bank of Maharashtra on April 26 reported a net profit of Rs 1,218 crore for fiscal fourth quarter, a 45 percent jump from the year-ago period.

The bank had reported net profit of Rs 840 crore last year.The PSU lender also said that its board approved the proposal to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore through various modes.

"Board approved raising of Capital up to Rs 7,500 crore through Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) / Rights issue / Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue, Preferential issue, ESPS or any other mode or combination thereof and / or through issue of BASEL III Compliant Tier I and Tier II Bonds or such other securities as may be permitted under applicable laws etc., ubject to the necessary approvals," said Bank of Maharashtra in a stock exchange filing.

The net interest income (NII) of the lender was up 18.2 percent YoY and stood at Rs 2,584 crore versus Rs 2,187 crore.

The GNPA of the lender stood at 1.88 percent versus 2.47 percent last year and NNPA stood at 0.20 percent versus 0.25 percent last year.

The lender also declared a dividend of Rs 1.4 per equity share of Rs 10 face value. The provision coverage ratio of the bank stood at 98.34 percent.

Net interest margin of the bank stood at 3.97 percent versus 3.78 percent last year.

On advances side, the bank witnessed a growth of 16.30 percent and total advances stood at Rs 2.03 lakh crore versus Rs 1.75 lakh crore last year. Deposits of the bank increased 15.66 percent and stood at Rs 2.7 lakh crore versus Rs 2.34 lakh crore last year.

Total branches of the bank increased to 2489 branches in March 2024 from 2203 branches in March 2o23.

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Gold Loan Fraud of Rs. 1.24 crore in PSU Bank

A significant gold loan fraud case was recently discovered at the Bank of India. In the Bank of India branch in Saraidhela, 28 individuals turned in 3.5 kg of phony gold in exchange for a Rs. 1.24 crore bank loan. A police report has been made against the business correspondent, gold valuer, and borrowers who were complicit in this fraud.

The accounts turned non-performing and the gold secured by the loan was revalued, which is when the issue was discovered. The fact that the gold being held in safe custody was counterfeit stunned the branch officers. Vishwa Pratap Singh, the senior branch manager, filed a police report at the Saraidhela station.

From January 2022 to January 2023, loans were made secured by counterfeit jewelry. Loan accounts quickly became non-performing assets (NPAs) due to non-payment by borrowers. The bank sent notifications to the loan holders to collect the unpaid balance in response to the circumstances. The loan holders received notice that if the installments were not deposited, their jewels would be put up for auction. When the loan holders ignored the notices, though, bank officials were taken aback.

In order to open the sealed packages containing the mortgaged valuables, a committee was established. The jewelry was reassessed and a video was completed. Reassessment revealed that the jewelry was, in fact, phony.

In March, the Reserve Bank of India had asked banks to share with it information on frauds reported in gold loans, actions taken by them to recover the money and defaults in the portfolio.

The RBI also asked banks to review their lending processes to check if they are in compliance with the regulator’s gold loan guidelines. The RBI sought this information after it found that employees of two state-run banks manipulated its system to meet gold loan targets.

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RBI Curbs On Kotak Mahindra Bank: Check which services will affect

 

RBI on April 24 barred Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and issuing fresh credit cards, citing supervisory concerns over its technology platforms. The actions followed an RBI examination of the bank's IT systems over the last two years and the bank’s “continued failure” to address concerns, the central bank said.

The ban will not impact existing customers and Koak can continue to provide services to them, including its credit card customers, the RBI said.

The action will likely impact new customer acquisition of Kotak Mahindra Bank as a significant portion of new account openings happen through online and mobile banking channels. Also, the RBI action is bad news for KMB's credit card business as well. As per experts, the central bank's ban on issuing new credit cards could impact the bank’s co-branded credit card deals.

"These actions are necessitated based on significant concerns arising out of Reserve Bank’s IT Examination of the bank for the years 2022 and 2023 and the continued failure on part of the bank to address these concerns in a comprehensive and timely manner," RBI said.

According to the central bank, serious deficiencies and non-compliance were observed in the areas of IT inventory management, patch and change management, user access management, vendor risk management, data security and data leak prevention strategy, business continuity and disaster recovery rigour and drill, and so on.

Explaining the action, the RBI said for two consecutive years, the bank was assessed to be deficient in its IT Risk and Information Security Governance, contrary to requirements under regulatory guidelines.

What triggered the RBI action?

During subsequent assessments, Kotak Mahindra was found to be significantly non-compliant with the corrective action plans issued by the Reserve Bank for the years 2022 and 2023, as the compliances submitted by the bank were found to be either inadequate, incorrect or not sustained, the central bank said.

Back in 2020, the RBI had  announced a similar action against HDFC Bank when it asked the country's largest private sector lender to put all new digital launches on hold till the bank resolve  tech issues. HDFC Bank was barred from launching any new digital products or services and issuing new credit cards as a penalty for repeated instances of outages in its online platforms.

Later, in August 2021, the RBI partially revoked the ban on the bank allowing it to issue new credit cards. Later in March, 2022, the bank informed the exchanges that the RBI has lifted the restrictions that were placed on the fresh digital launches of HDFC Bank.

The RBI had cited similar technology-related concerns as in the case Kotak Mahindra Bank while taking action against HDFC Bank after repeated outages at the lender's data centre. The restrictions barred HDFC Bank from launching any of the activities planned under the Digital 2.0 programme as well as the sourcing of new credit cards.

The RBI had also asked the bank to fix accountability in the matter pertaining to the data centre outages, and examine reasons behind the lapses. Subsequently, an audit was carried out and the bank submitted a roadmap to the central bank.

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Axis Bank Q4 Results: Lender back in black, NII jumps 22% YoY

The country’s third largest private sector lender, Axis Bank, on Wednesday reported net profit of Rs 7,129.67 crore in the quarter ended March 31 as compared to a net loss of Rs 5,728.42 crore in the same period of the previous year, despite an increase in loan loss provision.

The numbers are not comparable as the consumer business of Citi India was merged with Axis in the fourth quarter of FY23.

Net interest income grew 11 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 13,089 crore while fee income grew by 23 per cent to Rs 5,637 crore. The trading income gain for the quarter stood at Rs 1,021 crore.

Net interest margin for the quarter was 4.06 per cent, up 5 bps sequentially.

Provision for the quarter was Rs 1,185.31 crore as compared to Rs 305.77 crore mainly due to rise in provision for non-performing assets which went up from Rs 270 crore in the Q4 of FY23 to Rs 832 crore. Fresh slippages during the quarter was Rs 3,471 crore. Provision coverage ratio was at 79 per cent.

“The bank has not utilised Covid provisions during the quarter and these are reclassified to other provisions,” Axis Bank said.

The bank’s reported Gross NPA and Net NPA levels were 1.43% and 0.31% respectively on 31 March as against 1.58% and 0.36% as on 31st December 2023.

The total deposits grew 13% Y-o-Y while the current and savings account deposits were 43 per cent of the total deposits.

Advances grew 14% Y-o-Y to Rs 9.65 trillion mainly due to 20 per cent growth in retail loans which are 60 per cent of the bank’s net advances.

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HDFC Bank Q4 results: Profit jumps 37%, NII up 24.5%

HDFC Bank on April 20 reported a net profit of Rs 16,511 crore for the January-March quarter of the financial year 2023-24, marking a 0.84 percent jump compared to Rs 16,373 crore clocked in the previous quarter. The net profit is almost in line the market estimates of Rs 16,576 crore.

The bank’s year-on-year financial results are not comparable due to the merger with the parent entity HDFC Ltd during the year.

The net interest income (NII) of Rs 29,007 crore jumped from Rs 28,470 crore reported in the previous quarter. The NII is slightly lower as against the market estimates of Rs 29,172 crore.

The bank's gross non-performing asset (NPA) stood at 1.24 percent, down from 1.26 percent in the last quarter. On the other hand, net NPA for the quarter stood at 0.33 percent compared to 0.31 percent.

The net revenue of the lender grew to Rs 47,240 crore including transaction gains of Rs 7340 crore from the stake sale in subsidiary HDFC Credila Financial Services during the quarter.

The board of directors recommended a dividend of Rs 19.5 per equity share of Rs 1 for the year ended March 31, 2024, the bank said in a press release. Provisions and contingencies for the quarter were Rs 13,500 crore which included floating provisions of Rs 10,900 crore, the bank said. For FY24, the total profit of the bank stood at Rs 64,060 crore.

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बैंक की पूर्व वरिष्ठ प्रबंधक को जेल:सात साल की कैद के साथ 15 करोड़ जुर्माना

 

An Ahmedabad CBI court on Thursday convicted a former Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) manager on graft and forgery charges and sentenced her to seven years’ imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs 15.06 crore.

The court of special CBI judge Digant Arunbhai Vora held the accused – Preeti Vijay Sahjwani – a former senior manager at IOB’s Vastrapur branch, had “undeniably indulged in white collar crime and economic and social crime”.

The judge has held Sahjwani guilty under Prevention of Corruption Act’s sections 13 (1) (c), 13(1)(d), 13 (2) and IPC sections 467, 471 (forgery) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by bankers).

Sahjwani, between 1998 and 2001, was accused of allegedly cheating IOB to the tune of Rs 2.14 crore by way of crediting final maturity payments of FCNR (foreign currency non-resident) deposits of two accounts into two fictitious accounts – one a cash credit account and another a savings account – without any authority letter from the depositor or from the power of attorney holder.

She had also sanctioned loans and cash credits in the name of five fake persons, amounting to approximately Rs 1.40 crore against the security of unsurrendered deposit receipts of actual depositors, by making alterations in the amount, date, maturity value, etc. It was alleged that Sahjwani had caused a wrongful loss of over Rs 2 crore, including interest, as on July 27, 2001.

An offence was registered in 2001 and chargesheet was filed in October 2003 for criminal breach of trust, forgery of valuable security using forged documents, and criminal misconduct. It was alleged that Sahjwani had misused her official position by indulging in the offences.

The special CBI court, while imposing a fine of Rs 15 crore, which is to be returned to the bank, observed that taking into account the loss caused to the bank (which would amount to present day value worth over Rs 84 crore as on date), and inflation, interests etc, the court has taken into account the accused’s economic condition. Notably, the accused herself is a law graduate.

“The perpetrators of white collar crime are not the lower class citizens of the society but the middle class professionals, higher officials etc. The victims of white collar crime are common people of the society and the nation. The main motive behind white collar crimes is always financial gain and individuals committing these types of crimes enrich themselves illegally.

 Wealth, luxurious life and financial stability motivate the guilty-minded persons to commit such crimes… Corruption crimes committed by public servants are more fatal to the society and the country than ordinary crimes because the consequences of white collar crime are far greater and far-reaching than ordinary crimes,” Judge Vora observed.

The judge said that the crimes of corruption undermine the morale and self-confidence of people while white collar criminals use their experience, position and well-educated mind in a planned manner and misuse the trust and confidence placed on them by the organisation.

Sanjhwani had been absconding during the probe and she was taken into custody only in 2012 after she was detained by Canadian immigration authorities and was deported to India in January 2012.

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BoB, PNB among 6 PSU banks with high NPAs

Non Performing asset (NPA) is a loan or advance for which the principal or interest payment has remained overdue for a period of 90 days or more. According to data from Trendlyne, SBI, Bank of Baroda, and PNB are among the 6 PSU banks that reported the highest NPAs in Q3 of FY24. Here's the list:

Bank of India(BoI)

The net NPA of Bank of India stood at 1.41% in Q3FY24, which is the highest among PSU Banks. The PE ratio of the stock is 9.66. Bank of India has a market cap of Rs 61,870 crore.

Union bank of India

Union Bank of India reported a net NPA of 1.08% in Q3FY24. The PE ratio of the stock is 7.74. The firm's market cap is at Rs 1,02,773 crore.

Punjab National Bank (PNB)

Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a net NPA of 0.96% in Q3FY24. The PE ratio of the stock is at 17.76. Punjab National Bank's market cap is at Rs 1,35,490 crore.

Bank of Baroda(BoB)

The net NPA ratio of Bank of Baroda stood at 0.7% in the December quarter of FY24. The PE ratio of the stock is 7.3. It has a market cap of Rs 1,38,153 crore.

State Bank of India (SBI) 

The net NPA ratio of the State Bank of India (SBI) stood at 0.64% in Q3FY24. The PE ratio of the stock is 10.26. SBI has a market cap of Rs 6,65,731 crore.

Indian Overseas Bank(IOB)

Indian Overseas Bank reported a net NPA of 0.62% in the December quarter of FY24. The PE ratio of the stock is at 50.36, while its market cap is at Rs 1,26,457 crore.

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Police summons MDs of 4 Banks, 11 Bank Employees arrested

A number of bankers have been arrested in recent cyber fraud investigations due to allegations that they were involved in fraudulent operations. The managing directors of Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, RBL Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank are among the four private banks that the city police have written to, demonstrating how seriously they regard this issue. The letter's objective is to ask them to come in person the next week to provide an explanation for why no legal action should be taken against them.

Role of Bankers in Cyber Fraud Cases

When authorities discovered that the account holders implicated in illegal activities were unaware that they had opened such accounts, the role of bankers came under investigation. It was found that the bankers had helped cyber criminals open these accounts after more inquiry. The fact that the bankers charged a sizable commission in each instance suggests that they were aware that they were involved in illegal activity.

Victims of Fraudulent Investment and Task-based Schemes

Many people have been duped by schemes that promise large returns on investments or possibilities depending on tasks. In addition to apprehending the cyber criminals, the local police have shown initiative by making the bankers answerable for their involvement in these cyber fraud cases. As a result, the city police are the only law enforcement agency in the nation authorized to detain bankers in conjunction with other suspects in similar circumstances.

Read More - सबसे बड़ा बैंकिंग घोटाला: भारत देश में अब तक का सबसे बड़ा बैंक फ्रॉड, करोडो का बैंको को लगाया चुना

Exposing the Role of Bankers

During the investigation, it was discovered that the employees of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MG Road branch were involved in fraudulent activities. They were subsequently arrested, and during the interrogation, they confessed to the involvement of several other bankers in similar fraudulent acts. Recognizing that bank accounts are a crucial component in cyber frauds, the police decided to investigate the criminal activities of bankers in such cases.

Violations of KYC Norms

In light of the recent arrests, the city police have written to the managing directors of Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, RBL Bank, and Yes Bank. The purpose of this letter is to request their personal appearance and an explanation as to why legal action should not be initiated against them for clear violations of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

Bankers’ Methods and Tactics

During the ongoing investigations, the police have found that the bankers accused of aiding cyber criminals opened bank accounts using identification and address proofs collected from factory workers and laborers. They even gained access to the bank accounts of daily-wage workers by offering them money. Additionally, the police noticed the use of fake IDs, address proofs, and forged signatures to open bank accounts, further exposing the deceptive tactics used by these individuals.

Read More - Suspicious transactions detected in this bank,three staffs arrested

Bank Responsibilities and Accountability

The Deputy Commissioner of Police(Cyber Crime), Siddhant Jain, emphasized that bank managements have a responsibility to safeguard their clients’ money and protect it from cyber criminals. If bank employees are involved in criminal activities and aiding fraudsters, it is the duty of the bank managements to explain why action should not be taken against them. The police are determined to hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions in order to protect the public and maintain the integrity of the banking system.

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