Provisioning on account of the Covid-19 pandemic dragged Bandhan Bank’s profit before tax by nearly 31 per cent in Q4 FY20 at about Rs 693.32 crore against Rs 999.92 crore in the corresponding period of FY19. However, for FY20, the bank saw a nearly 35 per cent rise in profit before tax at Rs 4053 crore.

The bank made a provision of about Rs 690 crore on account of Covid 19 in the last quarter. According to Sunil Samdani, chief financial officer, Bandhan Bank, in the last ten days of March alone, the bank lost on a potential book growth of about Rs 2000-2500 crore due to the pandemic. In addition, the bank carries additional standard asset provision on micro finance portfolio at 0.75 per cent amounting to Rs 310 crore.

Also, about 13 per cent of mortgage loans and 35 per cent of SME loans were under moratorium last month. In the MFI segment, 100 per cent moratorium was availed by customers in the month of April.

The net interest income (NII) of the bank for the quarter grew by about 34 per cent to Rs 1,680 crore, against Rs 1,258 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The bank’s deposit portfolio grew by nearly 32 per cent on year-on-year basis, whereas the loan portfolio grew by nearly 60 per cent. Excluding Gruh portfolio, the deposit growth was 29 per cent, while loan growth was 20 per cent respectively. Advances on account of Gruh accounted for about 25 per cent of the bank’s loan book.

Also, on account of merger with Gruh, the overall microfinance portfolio of the bank came down to about 64 per cent of total advances as on 31st March 2020, against 86 per cent at the end of FY19.

The non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank remained under control, as the bank gross NPA stood at 1.5 per cent (2 per cent), while net NPA stood at 0.6 per cent (0.6 per cent), at the of Q4 of FY20.

The bank added nearly one million customers during the last quarter with total customer base of about 20 million as on March 31, 2020. The number of bank branches grew from 986 to 1018, while the number of doorstep banking services outlets increased from 3014 to 3541 between FY19 and FY20.

The results are not strictly comparable on a quarter-on-quarter basis as in Q3 of last financial year, the bank completed the acquisition of Gruh Finance, which also led to a healthy rise in the yearly profit, according to Samdani.