Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector lender, on Wednesday said it is planning to increase the higher yield unsecured component of its retail lending portfolio by expanding credit card and personal loans businesses.
At present, about 80% of the bank’s retail asset portfolio is secured and remaining 20% is unsecured.
“We would like to further increase the higher yield unsecured component. At the moment credit card and personal loans are only offered to our own customers through our branches. We are open to inorganic expansion and could explore open market,” Rajiv Anand, group executive and head, Retail Banking, Axis Bank, told journalists.
The bank sees “tremendous scope” to expand its credit card business in the country.
“We are confident with our underlying portfolio and with growth rates bottomed out, we can take risks on credit portfolio,” Anand pointed out.
Axis Bank has just raised $500 million through dollar-denominated senior unsecured notes at a yield of 3.25%, the lowest for any Indian lender.
The bank gained an edge in pricing partly due to a fall in the five-year US treasury note yield which has fallen 28 bps over the last two months.