Uco Bank MD & CEO Rajendra Kumar Saboo
Public sector lender UCO Bank on Wednesday reported around 8 per cent year-on-year growth in its net profit at ₹656.32 crore for the first quarter this fiscal, backed by around 80 per cent increase in operating profit and around 62 per cent fall in provisions.The Kolkata-based lender had posted a net profit of ₹607.44 crore for the first quarter last fiscal.The bank’s operating profit rose to ₹2809.54 crore for the first quarter of FY27 from ₹1562.26 crore for the corresponding period of FY26.“For the operating profit growth of 80 per cent we have seen contributions from most of the parameters. In the core income, our net interest income has grown by 16.85 per cent. The second major contribution comes from non-interest income. In the non-interest income, our growth has been around ₹690 crore,” UCO Bank MD & CEO Rajendra Kumar Saboo said in a media conference.During the first quarter this fiscal, the bank’s net interest income (NII) rose to ₹2808.26 crore from ₹1403.23 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal. Non-interest income witnessed an increase of 69.09 per cent y-o-y at ₹1686.24 crore. Domestic Net interest margin (NIM) improved 6 basis points y-o-y and stood at 3.24 per cent for Q1FY27.Provisions and contingencies during the period under review fell to ₹234.61 crore from ₹616.06 crore a year ago, backed by around 45 per cent y-o-y drop in provisions for gross non-performing assets (NPA) as the bank’s asset quality improved.credit growthThe lender’s credit growth in the first quarter this fiscal was 21.18 per cent year-on-year, while deposits growth was 11.28 per cent y-o-y. Advances in Retail, Agriculture & MSME (RAM) sectors increased 25.27 per cent y-o-y, backed by 27.32 per cent y-o-y growth in retail advances. CASA ratio stood at 36.94 per cent.UCO Bank is in the process of opening its branch in GIFT City next month. “As far as FCNR (B) is considered, we have started on this front, though the start is very small. There are two routes provided by the RBI — one is FCNR(B) deposit and other is OFCBs. On both the routes we plan to raise up to ₹50 crore by the timeline,” Saboo said.The bank has guided for a 12-14 per cent credit growth for the current financial year. It is maintaining its NIM guidance of 2.8-2.90 per cent.“In our bank the government’s holding is 90.95 per cent. So we have to reduce that to below 75 per cent as per the SEBI guidelines. We have obtained approval from the board as well as from our shareholders to raise equity capital to bring it down to below 75 per cent. But it depends on the market situation. As and when the market situation gives us an opportunity, we will try to issue shares only to reduce the government shareholding,” the MD added.The bank’s asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio fell 55 basis points to 2.08 per cent, while net NPA ratio declined 20 bps at 0.25 per cent.Published on July 22, 2026
