Bank of Baroda continues to outperform the industry averages. The bank has continued with this trend in the results of March 2010 quarter too. The bank has managed to grow its loan book at 22% on a year to year basis. This is clearly higher than the 17% standard set by the industry.

The bank has done so with the help of its strong branch network and stong deposits.

It has improved the share of its current and savings account (CASA) deposits to 35.6% as on March 2010 in comparison to 34.9% a year back. With an improvement in its CASA share the net interest margin (NIM) of the bank has also shown a rise by 12 basis points. The NIM of the bank has jumped to 3.5% at the end of March 2010.

NIM is the difference between the lending and borrowing rates. The industry has set a benchmark of 3% for the industry to be good. The management of the bank says that it has plans to increase the CASA deposits at a much higher rate than the total deposits. This way the NIM of the bank would improve further.

But the bank keeps this fact in mind that an increase in advances should not disrupt the asset quality of the bank. The NPAs of the bank as on March 2010 were only 0.3% of the net advances.

The bank also has plans to open 400 new branches in this fiscal. The widening branch network would help it in maintaining as well as growing its share of low cost deposits.