(Reuters) – HDFC Bank, India’s biggest private lender by assets, said on Thursday its growth in deposits outpaced that of loans in the three months to March 31, compared with the preceding quarter.
Deposits rose 5.9% to 27.15 trillion rupees ($318.5 billion), the Mumbai-based bank said, higher than the 2.5% rise in the October-December quarter.
Its low-cost current and savings account deposits rose 8.2%.
Gross advances, or loans sanctioned and disbursed, rose 4% to 26.44 trillion rupees, faster than the 0.9% sequential growth in the previous quarter.
HDFC Bank merged with its parent HDFC in July 2023, adding a large pool of loans to its portfolio but a much smaller volume of deposits. That has put the lender under pressure to either raise more deposits or scale back loan growth.
Overall loan growth for Indian banks moderated for an eighth straight month in February due to a drop in personal and credit card loans following tighter rules by the Reserve Bank of India.
In the March quarter, HDFC Bank securitised 107 billion rupees of loans, it said.
The bank aims to grow its loan book in line with the industry in 2025-26, while pushing for faster deposit growth, Chief Financial Officer Srinivasan Vaidyanathan had said in January.
($1 = 85.2470 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak and Nishit Navin; Editing by Maju Samuel)
