Bank of Baroda aims to maintain 3.41-3.61% net interest margin in FY13

Public sector lender Bank of Baroda (BoB) is hopeful of reporting a net interest margin (NIM) in the range of 3.41-3.61 per cent in the current financial year, a top bank official said.

"In FY13, our margins will be plus or minus 10 basis points of the margin level reported in the last financial year. Despite current economic environment, we are hopeful of maintaining our margin level in the current fiscal," said Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya on the sidelines of announcing the fourth quarter result of the bank.

The bank had an NIM of 3.51 per cent in the last financial year. Mallya said that possible reduction in the cost of funds, along with increasing CASA base would support the NIM this fiscal.

Referring to the NPA level, he said that NPA would come down during this fiscal. The bank has posted a slight increase in gross NPA to 1.53 per cent in FY12 compared to 1.36 per cent a year earlier.

Similarly, net NPA (non-performing asset) reported an increase to 0.54 per cent in the last financial year, compared to 0.35 per cent reported a year earlier. About the restructured accounts in the future, he said that he didn't see any rise in the restructured accounts in the near future.

"Accounts from the sectors like aviation and power have already been restructured in the last fiscal. So, I think, things will improve in the current fiscal," Mallya said.

The bank had restructured accounts worth Rs 8,515 crore in the last fiscal, out of which, Rs 5,281 crore had been restructured during the fourth quarter of last fiscal.

The public sector lender posted a 17.3 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 1,518.18 crore in the fourth quarter of last financial year compared to Rs 1,294 crore reported in the same period last year.

Total income of the bank rose by 25.8 per cent to Rs 9,016 crore during the January-March period.