Will focus on recoveries, biz growth and write-offs now: Karur Vysya Bank's CEO

B Ramesh Babu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Karur Vysya Bank on Tuesday said that the highlights of third quarter earnings is the return on assets, which increased to 1.32 percent (0.93 percent in December 2022 quarter). Citing reasons for the same, he said that ROA has surged on account of the margins and business growth as well as the quality of assets. Going forward, Babu said that the focus will be on recoveries, business growth and write-offs.

"Now our intention is a three pronged approach- one is the recoveries. Main focus would be on the recoveries and to some extent right off and the business growth also will help. This way, we want to bring down our net NPA to below 1 percent. So, that we can put a full stop to the asset quality issue for the bank," he told CNBC-TV18.

On net slippages, he said that it has been negative in the last six quarters. The slippages ratio which used to be 4.5 percent has also come down to 0.55 percent for the nine months.

"That's way reasonable control were able to exercise on the slippages which is actually helping us in not flowing into the stress sectors," he said.

On way forward, Babu said that he expects net NPAs to move between 0.5-0.9 percent.

"The net NPA is at 0.89 so the room available for us is much less if you look at the overall net NPA, which is around Rs 550 crore, Now, the focus should be on how to contain and sustain what we have got up to this stage," he told CNBC-TV18.

He further expects loan growth of 15 percent and credit growth guidance of 15-16 percent In FY23.

"Growth will be broad based. All verticals have been growing so that way we are reasonably confident that annual growth will be in between 15 and 16 percent this year. And based on the progress what we have made, we can take a call for the next year," he added.

Meanwhile, Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) registered a 56 percent increase in net profit at Rs 289 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, compared with Rs 185 crore in the year-ago period, aided by strong growth in net interest income and other income amid higher provisions.