NEW DELHI: State-owned Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) on Monday posted a 72 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 920 crore for the September quarter, aided by a decline in bad loans and a rise in interest income.The lender had reported a standalone profit of Rs 535 crore in the year-ago period.

Net Interest Income (NII) grew by 28.88 per cent to Rs 2,432 crore in Q2FY23, as against Rs 1,887 crore in the same period a year ago.

Talking about the financial performance, BoM Managing Director A S Rajeev said the operating profit has shown a growth of 31 per cent to Rs 1,920 crore, as against Rs 1,462 crore in the same period a year ago.

Net Interest Margin (NIM) increased to 3.89 per cent, from 3.55 per cent in the same quarter a year ago, he said, adding the NIM in the remaining part of the current fiscal is expected to remain around 3.5 per cent.

Likewise, net NPAs or bad loans came down to 0.23 per cent, from 0.68 per cent at the end of the second quarter of the previous fiscal.

Provision Coverage ratio improved to 98.40 per cent, as against 96.06 per cent in September, 2022.Provisions for bad loans for the second quarter increased to Rs 597 crore, from Rs 532 crore earmarked for the year-ago period.

During the quarter, the gross advances increased by 23.55 per cent to Rs 1,83,122 crore at the end of September 2023.BoM Managing Director A S Rajeev expects the bank to sustain the current advances growth of about 23 percent, log 15-16 percent deposit growth and keep the net interest margin of above 3.50 percent in FY 24.

With regard to Capital Adequacy Ratio, Rajeev said it has increased to 17.61 per cent with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 12.28 per cent.

Asked if further hike in interest rate is expected, Rajeev said it has peaked on both deposit and lending side and there may not be any change for the next two quarters.

There may be some pressure on Current Account Savings Account accretion side due to increase in deposit rate, he said, adding, this should stabilise in the couple of quarters.