Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s third largest government bank, is aiming to make it to the top 100 banks of the world in the next two years. The bank is confident that it can achieve this position due to fast loan growth and expansion into new businesses.
PNB Managing Director and CEO Ashok Chandra said in an interview that the bank’s growth, profits and asset quality are continuously improving. He says that the bank is moving in the right direction and its valuation will also improve in the coming times.
Emphasis on strengthening big banks in India
The Government of India and regulatory bodies want to create such big and strong banks that can easily fund the rapidly growing infrastructure and industrial projects in the country. At present, on the basis of total assets, only State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank are included in the top-100 banks of the world. According to Bloomberg data, PNB is currently included among the 125 largest banks in the world.
The bank emerged from bad times and became stronger.
At one time PNB was among those banks which were most affected by the corporate NPA (bad loans) crisis. But now the bank has cleaned up its balance sheet to a great extent and is focusing on high profitable businesses. In the April-June quarter, the bank’s net profit increased more than three times to Rs 5,250 crore. Last year, during the same period, the bank’s performance was weak due to high provisions.
Balance sheet size will more than double by 2030
The total balance sheet of PNB increased by about 9% to Rs 19.90 lakh crore by the end of June 2026. Ashok Chandra hopes that by 2030 it will increase to more than Rs 48 lakh crore. For this the bank will expand its loan portfolio and total assets.
Focus will be on corporate loan
PNB expects that in the coming times, companies will again take loans on a large scale, especially for infrastructure and project finance. The bank estimates that its credit growth in this financial year will be around 13%, in which the biggest contribution will be from corporate loans. In recent months, many private banks have also registered double digit growth in corporate loans. This indicates that the private sector investment cycle in India is gaining momentum again.
Will also enter new businesses
PNB is preparing to start wealth management service by October. Apart from this, the bank is also planning to enter the business of corporate merger and acquisition (M&A) financing in the third quarter of the current financial year. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to finance up to 75% of the total value of corporate takeover. This will open new opportunities in this business.
Emphasis also on increasing foreign exchange deposits
PNB is also working rapidly on increasing deposits in foreign currency. Under the special swap facility of RBI, the bank has so far raised about $ 425 million. The bank aims to raise more than US$2.5 billion ($2.5 billion) in foreign currency deposits by the end of September through partnerships with global banks.
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