Syndicate Bank Q3 profit falls 20%, NPA concerns persist

New Delhi: State owned Syndicate Bank has registered a decline of around 20 percent in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2014 at Rs 304.99 crore.Bank's net profit in the corresponding October-December quarter of previous fiscal stood at Rs 379.76 crore.Total income has increased from Rs 5,011.28 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2013 to Rs 5,921.58 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2014," it said in a filing to the BSE.The net interest margin, a gauge of profitability, fell to 2.25 percent during Q3-FY15, from 2.76 percent in Q3-FY14.On the asset front, gross non performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans increased to 3.6 percent of gross advances, from 2.8 percent in the year ago period.Net NPAs were at 2.38 percent of net advances in the third quarter of 2014-15, up from 1.66 percent during the same period a year earlier.It opened a total of 101 branches during Q3, including one in London, taking the total to 3,463.Syndicate Bank shares were trading 7.42 percent higher at Rs 112.15 apiece on BSE in the late afternoon trade. PTI