UCO Bank's net profit increases 25% to touch Rs 207 crore

Kolkata: UCO Bank has posted a 25.45-per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 207 crore. For the first time, the board of directors of the bank, at a meeting here on Monday, decided to pay a token dividend of Rs 1 crore to the government.

UCO Bank chairman and managing director V P Shetty says the income from treasury operations at Rs 354 crore is more or less at last year's level. The net interest income at Rs 882 crore posted a growth of Rs 152 crore. The non-interest income crossed the Rs 600-crore level to reach Rs 609 crore and record an increase of 26 crore.

"In the coming years, we will lay a good deal of emphasis on the generation of non-interest income such that it should cover the bank's operational expenses," he says. "The MoUs [memorandums of understanding] for agency business will be signed soon with Life Insurance Corporation and National Insurance Company for selling both life and non-life products, respectively."

The net profit would have been more but for additional provisioning of nearly Rs 200 crore the bank was required to make following the new accounting practices. During the year under review, the bank did a total provisioning of Rs 417 crore as compared to Rs 311 crore in the previous year. The gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio dropped to 8.24 per cent (9.59 per cent) and the net NPA ratio to 4.36 per cent (5.45 per cent).