Canara Bank's Q3 net profit up 26 pc at Rs 459 crore

Bangalore, Jan 23 (UNI) Public sector Canara Bank has earned a net profit of Rs 459 crore during the third quarter, ending December 2007, compared to Rs 363 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, recording an year-on-year growth of 26.4 per cent.

Talking to newspersons here, bank Chairman and Managing Director M B N Rao said the net profit recorded a 20 per cent growth for the first nine months of the fiscal to touch Rs 1,100 crore. The operating profit during the period stood at Rs 2,020 crore. He said the bank had maintained a healthy growth in interest income from core lending operations with a year-on-year growth of 36 per cent. The bank's total income registered a 33 per cent growth to touch Rs 11,911 crore as against Rs 8,979 crore for the same period in the previous year.

Mr Rao said the net Non Performing Asset ratio came down further to 0.89 per cent as against 0.96 per cent in December 2006. The cash recovery during the nine months stood at Rs 670 crore, he added.

On the bank's efforts towards financial inclusion, he said over 1,639 villages across the country had been covered and they had been taken up for the second phase of financial inclusion, addressing the villagers' total financial needs. Kerala was the first State to achieve total financial inclusion, he added.

With regard to overseas expansion, the bank had got permission from the Reserve Bank of India for commissioning branches in Johannesburg, Frankfurt, Muscat, Manama and Qatar. The representative office at Shanghai would be converted into a full-fledged branch soon, he said.

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