Central Bank of India net profit rises 31.7% on strong non-interest income

MUMBAI: Central Bank of India on Friday reported a 31.7% year-on-year jump in net profit to Rs 1,263 crore for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2025, driven by strong growth in non-interest income, a sharp expansion in advances and an improvement in asset quality.Total income during the quarter rose 12.6% to Rs 10,968 crore from Rs 9,739 crore a year ago, while interest income increased 6.2% to Rs 9,033 crore, supported by a 19.5% growth in gross advances. Non-interest income surged 57.5% to Rs 1,935 crore, led by a 130.1% rise in other receipts, including recoveries from written-off accounts and treasury profits, providing a significant boost to overall earnings.Announcing the bank’s results on Friday, MD & CEO Kalyan Kumar said that the bank managed to meet all its projections except for net interest margin, which stoo at 2.96% versus the targeted 3%+.

The cost to income ratio at 57.84% was higher than the targeted 56%.Kumar said that despite credit growth at 19.4% outstripping the 15.7% increase in deposits, the bank was well placed in terms of liquidity because of its relatively low credit deposit ratio and high government bond holdings which were 9% more than what was mandated.Total expenses grew 11.6% to Rs 8,676 crore, reflecting an 11.3% rise in interest paid, largely due to a 13% increase in interest on deposits, and a 14.7% increase in employee-related expenses to Rs 2,055 crore.

Provisions edged up 2.5% to Rs 1,029 crore, with the bank raising provisions for standard assets to Rs 150 crore and for restructured accounts to Rs 346 crore as part of efforts to strengthen its balance sheet against potential risks.Asset quality improved further during the quarter, with the gross non-performing asset ratio declining to 2.7% from 3.86% a year ago and 3.01% in the previous quarter, while net NPAs fell to 0.45% from 0.59% last year.

Return on assets rose to 1.01% from 0.86%, and return on equity improved to 14.47% from 12.85%. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.13% as against 16.43% a year earlier.Under its “Year of Business Acceleration” strategy, the bank’s total business grew 15.8% year-on-year to Rs 7,74,106 crore. Deposits increased 13.2% to Rs 4,50,575 crore, while advances rose 19.5% to Rs 3,23,531 crore. Retail, agriculture and MSME advances together grew 17.9% to Rs 2,23,166 crore, accounting for about 69% of gross advances.As of end-Dec 2025, the loan book remained well diversified, with RAM advances of Rs 2,23,166 crore and corporate credit of Rs 1,00,365 crore. Within the RAM segment, retail advances stood at Rs 96,652 crore, driven mainly by housing loans of Rs 57,311 crore, while MSME advances amounted to Rs 67,338 crore and agriculture advances to Rs 59,176 crore. The bank said 79.46% of standard rated advances of Rs 25 crore and above were rated ‘A’ and above, government-guaranteed advances were Rs 5,399 crore, and priority sector lending stood at 53% of adjusted net bank credit, well above the mandated 40% norm.