Mumbai: Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 17.7 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit at Rs 6,928 crore during the January to March quarter.
However, provisions and contingencies nearly doubled to Rs 3,785 crore as compared to Rs 1,899 crore in the same quarter last year.
But significantly, net interest income for the quarter climbed to Rs 15,204 crore from Rs 13,089 crore, driven by 21.3 per cent growth in advances and a 24.3 per cent growth in deposits. The net interest margin was 4.3 per cent.
Gross non-performing assets for Q4 eased to 1.26 per cent from 1.42 per cent in Q3 and 1.36 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
The bank said that the March quarter was marked by a considerable slowdown in economic activity following the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to strict social distancing policy, the bank saw a hit in volumes in terms of loan origination, distribution of third party activities and payments product activities.
“Thus, we could not optimise our collection efforts, and as a result of which fees income were lowered by Rs 450 crore,” it said.
