India’s third-largest lender ICICI Bank on Friday reported a loss of nearly Rs 120 crore for the quarter that ended June 2018 on account of a rise in bad loans. This is the lender’s first quarterly loss in at least 16 years, reports said. The bank reported a profit of Rs 2,049 crore in the same quarter last year.
The gross non-performing assets rose to 8.81% of the gross bad loans at the end of June, as against 8.84% at the end of the previous quarter. The bank added Rs 4,036 crore in additional non-performing loans during the quarter.
Total provisions for the bank more than doubled compared to the same period last year to Rs 5,971 crore. The bank’s net interest income, or the core income from operations, was Rs 6,102 crore compared to Rs 5,590 crore last year in the same quarter.
ICICI Bank’s first quarterly earnings come at a time when its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar is on her annual leave followed by an independent investigation against her into allegations of conflict of interest. Questions have been raised over a Rs 3,250-crore loan the bank sanctioned to the Videocon Group in 2012. Videocon Group CEO Venugopal Dhoot allegedly provided crores of rupees to NuPower Renewables six months after his company received the loan. The loan was part of the Rs 40,000-crore loan that Videocon secured from a consortium of 20 banks.
Sandeep Bakshi was later appointed chief operating officer of the bank and the whole time director until investigation against her is complete, the bank had said.
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