With an aim to maximise recovery and prevent fresh slippages to be able to sustain profitability, Punjab National Bank (PNB) hopes to achieve a target recovery ₹Rs 16,000 crore in the current fiscal year.
The country’s second-largest state-run lender said it will also aim to keep slippages below 1 per cent this year. While the total recovery of the bank stood at ₹4,733 crore for the fourth quarter and ₹14,336 crore for FY25, overall slippages ratio was 0.73 per cent during the last financial year.
“Going forward, maximization of recovery and preventing fresh slippages are going to be priority areas. We are targeting a higher total recovery of ₹16,000 crore as against a recovery of about ₹14,000 crore in FY’25...we are expecting that quarterly, our slippages will be in the range of around ₹1,500 crore to ₹1,700 crore,” Ashok Chandra, PNB MD and CEO, was quoted as saying by PTI.
Talking about technical write-offs, Chandra added that he is expecting a recovery of ₹6,000 crore in the technical write off book. The technical write-off book of the bank stands around ₹91,000 crore with the provision coverage ratio of more than 96 per cent and recoveries from such accounts are added to the bottomline directly.
Chunky assets are no longer there but there are a lot of NPA accounts in the range of ₹25 crore to ₹50 crore where recoveries are expected, he added.
The bank also plans to expand its RAM (retail, agriculture and MSMEs) sector lending to 58 per cent of its loan book in the current financial year with the help of various initiatives taken, including loan outreach.
PNB closed FY25 with loan outstanding under RAM segment at ₹6,02,682 crore, 56 per cent of the loan book.
“We are planning to increase RAM from 56 per cent to 58 per cent in this financial year because that will give me the cushion against loss which is happening due to reduction in the interest rate in the corporate and the RLLR (repo-linked lending rate) loan book,” he said.
The volume increase in the RAM segment will help compensate for a loss due to further rate cuts, he said.
For the financial year ended March 2025, PNB has emerged as the top bank in terms of profit growth among 12 public sector banks (PSBs) with a 102 per cent rise. The bank’s net profit doubled to ₹16,630 crore compared to ₹8,245 crore in the previous fiscal.
The bank has reported a 14 per cent rise in total business at ₹26.83 lakh crore in FY25, one of the highest in the banking system.
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