Canara Bank profit decreased in Q1

Bangalore, Jul 21 (UNI) The Net profit of the Public Sector Canara Bank has shown a dip during the first quarter of the current fiscal and stood at Rs 122.68 crores as against Rs 240.55 crores earned during the corresponding period last year.

Disclosing this to newsmen here, Bank Chairman and Managing Director A C Mahajan said however, the bank's income rose to Rs 4099 crores during first quarter as against Rs 3760 crores during the same period previous year. The bank's core deposits comprising retail and CASA deposits recorded a growth of 20.4 per cent year on year.

He said the bank's global business rose to a level of Rs 2,66,242 crores as at June 2008 recording a year on year growth of 12 per cent compared to Rs 2,37,866 crores as at June 2007.

Replying to queries, he said that the bank's global business was expected to cross Rs 3 lakh crores by keeping 25 per cent increase as development focus during 2009. The bank had also set a target of covering all branches under CBS by 2009, he added.

Answering another question, he said there was no proposal before the bank to raise deposits at least until September as the financial health of the bank was sound. The number of branches under Core Banking Solution rose to 1028 and nearly 76 per cent of the bank's business was accounted for by CBS. The bank had also obtained final clearance from the Chinese Banking Authority for converting its representative office at Shanghai into a full fledged branch and it would be inaugurated soon. Reserve Bank of India had already granted approval to open five branches in Johannesburg, Quatar, Frankfurt, Muscat and Manama.

UNI SR MSP TS1829