HDFC Bank on Monday reported a more than 20% year-on-year jump in its net profit for the December quarter to
Rs 3,356.84 crore, led by higher net interest income (NII). NII – the difference between interest earned and interest expended – grew to R7,068.50 crore, 24% higher than the corresponding period last year.
On a year-on-year basis, the asset quality remained under control, with gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total advances falling to 0.97% from 0.99% in December last year. Sequentially, however, gross NPA rose by 6 bps.
Net NPA rose 3 basis points year-on-year to 0.29%, while the net interest margin (NIM) fell by 10 bps to 4.3%, compared with 4.4% last year.
On a sequential basis, the net NPA rose 4 basis points. As on Dec 31, total restructured loans stood at 0.1% of total advances, unchanged from the same quarter last year.
Provisions other than tax contingencies witnessed a rise of close to 17% Y-o-Y at R653.90 crore at the end of the third quarter.
At the end of the quarter under review, HDFC Bank’s advances stood at R4.36 lakh crore, up nearly 26% over the same quarter last year. The retail and wholesale loan books expanded 29% and 19%, respectively, on a Y-o-Y basis.
Total deposits as on December 31 stood at Rs 5.24 lakh crore, up 26% year-on-year, led by growth in CASA deposits. Current account deposits rose 30% to Rs 74,044 crore, while savings account deposits grew 21% to Rs 1.35 lakh crore.
“We have seen some growth in current account deposits even at the system level, but our growth in this quarter – close to 29% – was distorted to some extent due to a tax-free bond issue, for which we were the collections bank. But even when adjusted for that, Current account deposit growth for us has been 23%,” Paresh Sukthankar, deputy managing director, said in a post-earnings conference call.
Sukthankar said the growth in savings account deposits was due to new customers and higher balances, while that of current account deposits was because of the HDFC Bank’s payments business.