ICICI Bank profit jumps 34.5% to `8,792 crore in December quarter

Mumbai: ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 34.5 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 8,792 crore in December 2022 quarter on a consolidated basis, helped by an overall healthy performance.

The second largest private sector lender’s profit after tax grew 34.2 per cent to Rs 8,312 crore in the quarter, despite additional hit on account of a change in policies and also making prudential

provisions.

The bank’s core net interest income grew 34.6 per cent to Rs 16,465 crore during the reporting quarter on the back of a nearly 20 per cent growth in advances and a nearly 0.7 per cent expansion in the net interest margin to 4.65 per cent.

Its executive director Sandeep Batra said that in a rising interest rate environment like the current one, the margins expand as the loans get repriced faster when compared to deposits which get repriced with a lag. The Net Interest Margins (NIMs) will reach a peak in a quarter or two and then stabilise, he said.

The bank posted a deposit growth at a slower 10.3 per cent amid the ‘war for deposits’ in the system, and the management pointed out to comfortable levels on liquidity coverage when asked about the divergence.

The non-interest income increased 1.8 per cent to Rs 4,987 crore, excluding treasury income.

On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 3.07 per cent from the quarter ago period’s 3.19 per cent and 4.13 per cent in the year-ago

period.

The gross slippages for the quarter came at Rs 5,723 crore, of which a bulk Rs 4,159 crore was from the retail and the rural banking segments and Rs 1,500 crore was from corporates and small business segments, of which Rs 800 crore was from advances already restructured earlier.