Oriental Bank of Commerce(OBC) Q4 loss widens on rising bad loans

Public sector lender Oriental Bank of Commerce’s (OBC) net loss widened to Rs1,650.22 crore for the quarter ended March of 2017-18. The bank had made a net loss of Rs1,218.01 crore during the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal ended March 2017.

Total income of the bank during January-March quarter of 2017-18 came down to Rs4,689.12 crore as against Rs5,093.84 crore, OBC said in a BSE filing.

Asset quality of the bank worsened with net non-performing assets (NPAs) rising to 10.48% of the net advances as on 31 March 2018 against 8.96% reported a year ago.

Public sector lender reported a divergence of Rs968 crore in its gross NPAs for 2016-17. As per the bank, its gross NPAs as on 31 March 2017 stood at Rs22,859.27 crore, while the same as assessed by RBI for the reported year stood at Rs23,827.17 crore, OBC said in a BSE filing. The divergence in the gross NPAs for 2016-17 stood at Rs967.90 crore.

As per an Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directive in April 2017, banks have been advised to make disclosure in a prescribed format of the divergence in the asset classification and provisioning.

Gross NPAs or bad loans as a percentage of gross advances at the end of March 2018 stood at 17.63%, up from 13.73% a year ago. Bank’s provisioning for bad loans stood at Rs2,419.47 crore in the quarter under review against Rs3,050.60 crore a year ago.

Without naming anyone, Oriental Bank of Commerce said, in respect of two gems and jewellery borrower group, where fraud was declared by some banks, the bank has fully provided for the entire funded exposure.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems are wanted in connection with the alleged over Rs13,000 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB). Other banks too have declared direct/indirect exposure to Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems. Their role in the alleged fraud is being investigated by multiple agencies.

For the full financial year, the bank reported a net loss of Rs5,871.74 crore. It had registered a net loss of Rs1,094.07 crore in the preceding 2016-17 fiscal. Total income in the entire 2017-18 fiscal stood at Rs20,181.25 crore, lower from Rs21,187.85 crore a year ago.