Most retail borrowers who applied for the loan moratorium did so out of caution and not any real financial stress, HDFC Bank told analysts on a post-results conference call. It also said a series of stress tests on its loan portfolios helped it arrive at the figure of Rs 1,550 crore that it has set aside as contingency provisions for COVID-19.
Bank chief risk officer Jimmy Tata said: “When we did an analysis of the people who have applied for the moratorium, in retail, particularly, around 95-98% of the customers were not in default at the point of time of applying. We have surveyed around 1,000 customers and the feedback has been that the moratorium is being taken more out of caution than out of stress.”
The percentage of applicants is in low single-digit as a share of the loan book, the bank said, but this could go up as it has not put a deadline or a cut-off for people to apply. “When you see their (the applicants’) account balances and salary credit, it was quite amazing because the salary credits are happening but they want to still avail the moratorium as a cautionary measure,” the management said.