Kerala-headquartered Dhanlaxmi Bank has reported a strong business year with credit growing by 16.85% even as the private lender continued to focus on retail loans, recoveries and low-cost deposits.

The bank reported an 11.26% growth in business to Rs 23,194 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 20,847 crore during the year-ago period.  

Driven by gold loans, the lender’s gross advances stood at Rs 9,867 crore as on 31 March 2023 compared to Rs 8,444 crore a year ago.

According to business updates filed with the stock exchange, the credit-to-deposit (CD) ratio rose 5.96% to 74.04%. A high CD ratio implies that the bank has converted all its deposits to use by deploying the funds. 

The bank’s gold loan book grew 23.4% to Rs 2,274 crore as on 31 March 2023, from Rs 1,843 crore in the same period a year ago. 

The bank’s advances far outstripped the deposit growth. As on 31 March this year, deposits grew 7.5% to Rs 13,327 crore. The share of the low-cost current and savings account deposits (CASA) stood at 31.9%.

The shares of the bank rallied by over 5% following the announcement of a healthy set of numbers. The stock has given a return of 21% over the last one year.