Regional rural banks incur net loss of Rs. 2,206 cr in FY20

Regional rural banks (RRBs) as a group reported net loss of Rs 2,206 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, as against Rs 652-crore net loss in FY19, according to data published by Nabard.

During FY 2019-20, 26 RRBs earned profit of Rs 2,203 crore, while 19 incurred losses of Rs 4,409 crore, the data showed.

The data on RRBs, recently published by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), is based on the data uploaded by the RRBs in the Ensure portal. As on March 31, 2020, there were 45 RRBs functioning in 685 districts of 26 states and three union territories (UTs). These RRBs are sponsored by 15 commercial banks and operating through a network of 21,850 branches.

Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of gross loans outstanding of RRBs marginally declined to 10.4 per cent as on March 31, 2020, from 10.8 per cent as on March 31, 2019, the data showed.

Share of standard, sub-standard, doubtful and loss assets stood at 89.6 per cent, 3.6 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, as of end March 2020. Eighteen of the 45 RRBs (as against 20 out of 53 RRBs as on March 31, 2019) had GNPA above 10 per cent as on March 31, 2020. RRBs, at aggregated level, achieved a growth of 8.6 per cent in their business in FY20 compared to a growth of 9.5 per cent in the previous year, according to the data. Total business of RRBs stood at Rs 7.77 lakh crore as on March 31, 2020.

Deposits and advances of RRBs increased by 10.2 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively during FY2019-20. Gross outstanding loans stood at Rs 2.98 lakh crore as against Rs 2.80 lakh crore in FY19.

Priority sector loans constituted 90.6 per cent or Rs 2.70 lakh crore of the gross loans outstanding of RRBs as on March 31, 2020. Share of agriculture and MSME sectors in total loan outstanding stood at 70 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, the data showed.

As of end March 2020, 17 out of the 45 RRBs had capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) of less than 9 per cent, of which six RRBs had negative CRAR. System-wide CRAR of RRBs deteriorated to 10.2 per cent as on March 31, 2020 from 11.5 per cent in the previous year, the data showed.