HDFC Bank, India’s largest private lender, continued its aggressive drive to grow its deposit base, adding deposits of over Rs 1,200 crore in provisional figures for the September quarter.
The company increased its deposits by 15.1% at the end of September quarter, taking total deposits to Rs 25 billion. After that, deposits increased by 5%.
“Overall, we see this as a good number, given that margins remain stable despite slower loan growth,” said Pranav Gundrapalle, head of India finance at Bernstein. “This will give us great confidence that things will return to normality sooner.” “If borrowings reduce significantly during the quarter, there is even a possibility that the healthy profit margin improvement story will continue.”
The bank’s CASA deposits stood at Rs 8.83 billion as of September 30, 2024, an increase of around 8% year-on-year. Fixed deposits stood at Rs 16.16 million, an increase of around 19.3% year-on-year.
Total advances for the September 2024 quarter increased by 7% to Rs 2,519 crore. Advances including interbank participation certificates, rediscounts of bills, securitization etc. increased by 8% to Rs 26.33 billion in Q2 2024. The bank said it securitized loans worth Rs 19,200 crore in the September quarter.
“The slowdown in loan growth is due to a decline in corporate lending,” said Suresh Ganapathy, head of financial services research at Macquarie Capital. “We have previously highlighted that the bank is looking to sell some of its corporate lending as part of its consolidation strategy, which we believe is contributing to slower corporate growth. Growth in personal loan balances was relatively modest, driven by strong bank growth, although some personal loans may also have been sold during the quarter. “Despite personal lending increasing 2.6% quarter-on-quarter and commercial and rural bank lending increasing 4.7%, the corporate credit sector declined again, down 3.3%.”QoQ .
During the quarter, as on June 30, 2024, retail loans increased by approximately Rs 33,800 billion, commercial and rural bank loans increased by approximately Rs 38,000 billion, and corporate and other wholesale loans decreased by Rs 13,300 billion. .
