PRE-PROVISION OPERATING PROFIT - PPOP

It refers to the amount of income a bank earns in a given period of time, before taking into account funds set aside to provide for future bad debts. The PPOP will be reduced once the bank deducts the dollar amount of bad debt provisions it determines need to be set aside to cover expected loan defaults, but this is not a cash outflow for the bank. The PPOP simply provides a reasonable estimate as to what the bank expects to have left for operating profit once it eventually incurs cash outflows due to defaulted loans.