Saraswat Cooperative Bank, India’s largest urban cooperative bank, is likely to cross the Rs 50,000-crore mark in terms of total business by the end of March 2016, according to Chairman Shashikant Sakhalkar, Hindu reports.
Readers would recall that the UCB slide into gloom when its high-profile Chairman Eknath Thakur breathed his last a couple of years ago. But the new team collected itself and plunged headlong into managing the UCB’s affairs professionally.
In FY2015, the bank’s total business (deposits plus advances) grew 14 per cent (Rs 5,559 crore) to Rs 44,969 crore.
Deposits grew 13.5 per cent to Rs 27,171 crore and advances increased 15 per cent to Rs 17,798 crore. In the financial year ended March 31, 2015, net profit grew 29 per cent to Rs 190 crore (Rs 147 crore in FY 2013-14). The bank declared a dividend of 15 per cent (10 per cent).
As on March 31, 2015, gross NPAs (non-performing assets) as a percentage of total advances edged lower to 4.02 per cent (Rs 715 crore in absolute terms), against 4.69 per cent (Rs 726 crore).
Net NPAs, however, edged up to 0.67 per cent (Rs 115 crore) as against nil in the previous year. The bank has 267 branches spread across six States and will add 20 new branches this year.
