HDFC Bank Q3 profit up 20 per cent to Rs 3,357 crore

HDFC Bank on Monday reported a jump of over 20% year-on-year in its net profit for the December quarter at Rs 3,356.84 crore, led by higher net interest income (NII).

NII – the difference between interest earned and interest expended – grew to Rs 7,068.50 crore, 24% higher than in the corresponding period last year.

On a year-on-year basis, 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 net interest margin (NIM) fell by 10 bps to 4.3% compared with 4.4% last year. On a sequential basis, 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 saw a rise of close to 17% y-o-y at Rs 653.90 crore at the end of the third quarter this fiscal.

At the end of the quarter under review, HDFC Bank’s advances stood at Rs 4.36 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, the bank’s deputy managing director, said in a post-earnings conference call.

Sukthankar added that 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.