Citi net jumps 12% on higher margins

A 13% growth in the loan disbursement has helped Citibank post a 12.15% jump in net profit in India to Rs 3,626 crore in the fiscal ended March 2017.

During the year, the bank disbursed Rs 234,181 crore of loans, including those booked in offshore locations. Improvement in its net interest margins (NIM) by 30 basis points to 5.4% also helped in reporting higher profits.

“Our results are a consequence of our execution focus, judicious expense controls and sound risk management. Citi India delivered yet another year of consistently strong results and improved profitability while continuing to maintain high asset quality and a robust capital position,” Citi India CFO Niraj Parekh said in a release.

Bucking the trend of high NPAs in the banking sector, Citi India reported a gross non-performing asset ratio of 1.5%, which is same as last year with a prudent risk management strategies. The bank also gave a thrust to digitisation to fuel its growth and profitability. Demonetization also helped the bank improve its CASA deposit to 58.2% during the year, up from 49.7% in the year-ago period.

Citibank India also has a strong retail focus besides the corporate lending. The bank has a retail customer base of 2.5 million with 1.2 million bank accounts. The credit card base of the bank is also substantial with 2.4 million cards nationally, being the fourth-largest issuer of credit cards in the country. The bank has a 13% market share in retail credit card spends in the country. The average spends per card per year is 1.4 times higher than the industry average.

Citibank India extended loans of Rs 13,700 crore to agriculture, affordable housing, empowerment of weaker sections and micro, small and medium enterprises as well as over Rs 6,500 crore towards export credit for the fiscal, as part of its priority sector lending obligations.

Citi India helped raise Rs 172,935 crore of equity and debt capital for its clients. It held a 6.9% market share of India's domestic payment flows and 6.6% of India's merchandise and software services trade flows. The lender manages approximately 30% of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows in India as on March 31, 2017.