Bangalore: State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped PNB to become the country's second largest public sector lender in terms of annual profit.

Mumbai-based BoB's net profit crossed 5,000 crore during 2011-12, a rise of 18 percent from the previous year.

Punjab National Bank's (PNB) net profit rose by 10.2 percent to 4,884 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2012.

The country's largest bank State Bank of India in the first nine months of 2011-12 has posted a net profit of 8,243.64 crore. Its profit in 2010-11 stood 8,264.5 crore .

BoB Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya had said last week the bank had been able to post sound growth despite economic challenges like industrial slowdown, high inflation and elevated interest rates.

During the year, BoB's gross NPA rose to 1.53 percent of total advances in 2011-12 from 1.36 percent in the previouis year.

Significantly, the gross NPA for PNB as a proportion of advances went up to 2.93 percent against 1.79 percent at the end of March last year.

Bangalore-based Canara Bank retained the third slot among the PSBs despite 18 percent dip in profit at 3,282.72 crore in FY'12 against 4,025.89 crore in the previous fiscal.

As regards fourth quarter is concerned, BoB had posted net profit of 1,518.18 crore, while PNB's bottom line rose to 1,424.06 crore.

Total income of BoB during the quarter rose by 25.8 percent to 9,016 crore from 7,168.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Mumbai-based lender which reported a tax gain of around 322 crore in the fourth quarter, posted a 7 percent rise in net interest income (NII) to 2,797 crore.

Similarly, net interest margin stood at 3.44 percent for domestic operations and 2.96% for international operations during the fourth quarter of 2011-12.