State-owned Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) is aiming to boost advances in retail, MSMEs, corporate and agricultural loans during the current fiscal year, as the lender has substantially brought down the stressed assets on its balance sheet through sustained and targeted efforts.

 The outlook of the Indian banking sector is seen to be improving on the back of better credit demand and strong balance sheets, IOB said in its FY21-22 annual report.

 In the fiscal year ended March 2022, IOB witnessed doubling of its net profit at Rs 1,709 crore, as against Rs 831 crore in the previous fiscal year, as the bank improved on its asset quality through a multi-pronged strategy and focussed recovery initiatives.

 IOB said the asset quality of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are on an improving trend though some loans are classified as restructured loans under pandemic permitted RBI schemes.

 During 2021-22, the gross non-performing assets (GNPA) of the PSBs improved from 9.11 per cent to 7.29 per cent and net NPA from 3.09 per cent to 2.20 per cent.

“The Indian Overseas Bank is aiming to increase advances in the current financial year with secular growth across retail, micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME), and corporate and agricultural loans,” Partha Pratim Sengupta Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Indian Overseas Bank said in his address to shareholders.

 The Chennai-based lender pointed to the revised outlook by the India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) on the Indian banking sector from ‘improving’ to ‘stable’ for 2022-23, helped by better credit demand and strong balance sheet of the banks.