Chennai, Oct 27 : Listed private sector Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) closed the first half of FY23 with a higher net profit of Rs 496.51 crore, said a top bank official. He also said the bank will be revising upwards its interest rates on advances and deposits with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiking the repo rates and also pitch for government business. Announcing TMB's results, S.Krishnan, Managing Director & CEO told reporters that the bank closed the first half with a net profit of Rs 496.51 crore up from Rs 392.08 crore registered during the corresponding period the previous year. For the period under review, the bank's net interest income stood at Rs 1,032.57 crore (Rs 874.75 crore H1FY22). During the first half of FY23 TMB did a total business of Rs 78,013.18 crore (deposits Rs 43,136.65 crore, advances Rs 34,876.53 crore) as against the previous year corresponding period's figure of Rs 72,619.87 crore (deposits Rs 41,022.21 crore, advances Rs 31,597.66 crore). About 87 per cent of the bank's advances are for the retail, agriculture and MSME sector and hence the loan delinquencies are low, Krishnan added. As on September 30, TMB's gross non-performing assets (GNPA) was Rs 593.34 crore (Rs 1,045.26 crore) and the net NPA was Rs 295.97 crore (Rs 564.95 crore). Krishnan said the bank will soon sign up with a couple of more life and non-life insurers as their corporate agents to increase its other income. With RBI recently lifting the restrictions on branch expansion, Krishnan said the bank would cautiously expand its footprint. Currently, TMB has 509 branches and bulk of them are located in Tamil Nadu. /IANS