New Delhi: The board of directors of Global Trust Bank (GTB) has approved the unaudited accounts for the half year ended 30 September 2002 at its meeting held on 29 October 2002. The bank reported a net profit of Rs 19.41 crore for the half year ended 30 September 2002.

“We have addressed the asset portfolio; exposure norms were reviewed and scaled down. The capital market exposure has also been reduced, and focussed recovery teams have been set up. Internal procedures and systems were improved, and steps have been taken to diversify risks. The bank is now poised for growth,” says GTB Managing Director Sudhakar Gande.

Income and expenditure
The total income for the half year ended 30 September 2002 was Rs 395.6 crore, of which the interest income is Rs 320.65 crore. The other income for the first half of FY 2002-03 is lower at Rs 74.95 crore on account of lower market-related opportunities in trading income of SLR (statutory liquidity ratio) securities.

The interest expenditure was brought down by more than 20 per cent to Rs 273.8 crore from Rs 346.2 crore (September 2001) owing to an improvement in the share of low-cost deposits from 13.9 per cent to 16.5 per cent, a conscious reduction in high-cost deposits and a reduction in interest rates offered on deposits. As a result, the cost of deposits dropped by more than 100 basis points and the net interest income improved by more than 8 per cent to Rs 46.85 crore.

The cost-monitoring measures initiated by the bank are yielding good results. Despite an increase in the delivery network by 14 branches and 88 ATMs, the increase was very marginal.

Provisions
GTB made a provision of just Rs 12.06 crore towards depreciation on investments and impaired assets since the asset quality has improved owing to substantial write-offs and provisions during the previous year ended March 2002.

Capital adequacy
The capital adequacy ratio of the bank was at 10.64 per cent as against the regulatory requirement of 9 per cent prescribed by the Reserve Bank f India.

Business update
On a year-over basis, the delivery network was increased significantly with the addition of 14 branches and 88 ATMs, thereby taking the total network to 100 branches and 213 ATMs as of end-September 2002.

GTB launched Unnati banking solutions for the small and medium enterprises (SME) segment and international debit card Proton in association with Visa International.

An increased delivery network and the product profile enabled GTB to acquire additional 1,59,000 customer accounts during the period. As a result, the customer-base as of 30 September 2002 stood in excess of 7,70,000.

Outlook
GTB will continue its thrust on improving its asset quality, broad base its risk profile through retail assets and the SME segment, improve internal systems and procedures. With a view to capitalise and leverage on the branch network, technology and customer base, the bank will be launching the retail asset programme shortly so as to diversify the risk further.

GTB plans to increase its delivery network further by adding 187 more ATMs and 20 more branches, taking the total to 400 ATMs and 120 branches. With these initiatives, the bank is confident of increasing its customer base to 1 million by the end of the current financial year.

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