South Indian Bank (SIB) has reported a growth of 15.8 per cent in net profit to Rs 62.46 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year against Rs 54.20 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

SIB’s Profit before tax rose from Rs 82.37 crore to Rs 98.74 crore. Total income for the bank increased to Rs 530.91 crore. This included Rs 487.79 crore as interest income and Rs 43.12 crore as other income against Rs 487.38 recorded in the same quarter last year.

Total expenditure too grew to Rs 412.71 crore against Rs 387.19 crore. Non-Performing assets of the bank remained almost flat at 0.39 per cent as on December 31, 2009 like last year.

Deposits for the bank rose 25.55 per cent to Rs 20,643.23 crore, while advances recorded a growth of 31.11 per cent to Rs 14,868 crore.

Bank's total business recorded a growth of 27.82 per cent to Rs 35,511 crore as against Rs 27,782 crore.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, total income of the bank increased to Rs 1,586.53 crore as against Rs 1,332.37 crore, registering an increase of 19.08 per cent. The Net interest margin too grew to 3.09 per cent as against 2.88 per cent in the same period last year.

Mr. V A Joseph, managing director and CEO of the bank said: "The bank has planned to open 60 branches in the next six month period taking the total number of branches to 635." He also said that to tap into the overseas remittances segment the bank would soon tie up with Hutton National Bank of Sri Lanka and Qatar Commercial Bank.