State-owned Allahabad Bank, Dena Bank, Indian Bank and Punjab & Sindh Bank have lost their administrative autonomy owing to poor financial performance.

A bank, which enjoys administrative autonomy, doesn't require the Reserve Bank of India's prior approval to open new branches and employ professionals on its payroll. The eligibility criteria was formulated in July 1998.

According to a recent RBI circular, 23 of the 27 state-owned banks have qualified for administrative autonomy based on their financial performance in 2001-02.

The latest entrant to the list is Vijaya Bank, which has fulfilled the RBI criteria as on March 31, 2002.

State Bank of India, its seven associate banks and 15 of the 19 nationalised banks are the other qualified banks.

To obtain administrative autonomy, a bank should post net profit for three consecutive years, capital adequacy ratio should be over 9 per cent, the net non-performing assets-to-net advance ratio should be less than 9 per cent, and the bank should have more than Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) net-owned funds.

Allahabad Bank is yet to fulfill the criteria of net NPAs-to-net advances which was at 10.57 per cent as in March 2002.

Dena Bank's net NPAs-to-net advances was the highest at 16.02 per cent. It has also failed on the three-year net profit criteria as well as the CAR threshold which was 7.64 per cent as on March 2002.

Indian Bank has posted a net profit only in March 2002 in the last three years, while its CAR, too, is way below at 1.69 per cent.

Punjab & Sind Bank's net NPAs-to-net advances ratio was 11.71 per cent as on March 2002.