{
  "id": 15407399,
  "title": "PNB eyes Rs 6k cr profit post record Q2 performance",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/18/pnb-eyes-rs-6k-cr-profit-post-record-q2-performance",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-18T11:58:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/punjab-national-bank-eyes-rs-6000-crore-quarterly-profit-after-record-september-earnings/articleshow/135028419.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Punjab National Bank (PNB) anticipates reaching a net profit of Rs 6,000 crore in the coming quarters, following a record-breaking performance in the second quarter of 2026, its Managing Director and CEO Ashok Chandra revealed. The bank's consistent growth in key financial metrics over the past four quarters has led Chandra to predict this upward trajectory will persist. In the September quarter of 2026, PNB posted a net profit of Rs 5,500 crore, marking the highest quarterly profit ever recorded by the institution.\n\nThe bank's strength lies in its core operating profit, which grew by around 29% year-on-year during the second quarter, despite a treasury loss of Rs 1,000 crore. This core operating profit growth, which excludes treasury gains and recoveries, serves as a testament to the bank's underlying business strength. PNB's core operating profit, which excludes treasury gains and recoveries, grew by 29% year-on-year during the quarter. The bank is optimistic about the sustained growth in its core business operations, which will drive its profitability momentum in the upcoming quarters.\n\nPNB is actively expanding its loan portfolios in the retail, agrarian, micro, small and medium enterprises (RAM) and corporate sectors. The bank's retail loan book is expanding at over 16% year-on-year, while advances to MSMEs and agriculture are growing by 19-20% and more than 18% respectively. These increases in advances are expected to continue at a rate of 1-2% during the third quarter, driven by the current festive season's credit demand. PNB expects the growth in its corporate loan book to be around 10-11% this fiscal year, following a 17-18% increase in sanctions, despite a 10-11% reduction in the balance sheet as the bank discharges some low-yielding corporate advances.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}