The fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday posted biggest ever quarterly loss of Rs 13,417 crore for the January-March period on the back of the biggest banking scam. The Nirav Modi fraud case was unearthed at the PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai in February. The mounting bad loans also led to an increase in the overall quarterly loss. The bank's profit in the same quarter last year was Rs 261.9 crore.
The PNB's total income also declined to Rs 12,945.68 crore in Q4 from Rs 14,989.33 crore in the year-ago period. The bank's total NPAs (non-performing assets) rose to 18.38 per cent for Q4 against 12.53 per cent a year ago. Its net NPAs ratio soured to 11.24 per cent against 7.81 per cent a year ago and 7.55 per cent in Q3. Besides, the bank's provision for NPAs was Rs 16,203 crore in Q4 compared to Rs 2,996 crore in Q3.
According to a Bloomberg report, high provisions led to a decline in its capital adequacy to 9.2 per cent, which is below below Basel-III norms of 11.5 per cent. The bank's total liability in the fraud involving Nirav Modi's companies and his partners amounted to Rs 14,356 crore, which includes Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) and other credit facilities given to his companies. The bank has said that it has paid liabilities totalling Rs 6,586.1 crore on account of LoUs/FLCs during the quarter ending March 31.
After the announcement of its quarterly result, the share of the state-owned lender was also hit by a significant margin. The share opened at Rs 89 and reached Rs 91.5 during the day, only to settle at Rs 86 on BSE. During the day, the share price even touched the Rs 83.8 mark, registering 52-week low. Ever since the bank reported its biggest ever scam involving diamond merchant Nirav Modi's group of companies, the bank's share price has fallen over 40 per cent this year. PTI reported that the bank's market valuation also suffered a blow and fell by Rs 938.07 crore to Rs 23,740.93 crore. On the National Stock Exchange, the share dived 6.1 per cent and closed at Rs 83.85.