ICICI Bank has reported a 25% year-on-year rise in net profit for the fiscal third quarter ended December to Rs 6,193.81 crore, its highest quarterly profit on the back of lower provisioning and higher net interest income. Provisions for the quarter stood at Rs 2,007 crore, down 27% year-on-year.

"We are confident of the portfolio that we have built," said ICICI Bank executive director Sandeep Batra, without providing any guidance on asset quality. "We hold Covid-related provisions worth Rs 6,400 crore. As the situation with respect to the third wave becomes clearer, we will see what we need to do with this.”

Net interest income (NII), a key performance indicator, grew 23.44% to Rs 12,236.04 crore from Rs 9,912.46 crore a year ago. 

Net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, was at 3.96% compared with 4% in the September quarter and 3.67% a year ago.

Non-interest income, excluding treasury income, grew 25% YoY to Rs 4,899 crore from Rs 3,921 crore in the earlier year. Fee income rose 19% YoY to Rs 4,291 crore. 

Provisions (excluding provision for tax) fell 26.8% to Rs 2,007.30 crore from Rs 2,741.72 crore in the same period last year. Provision coverage ratio stood at 79.9% as on December 31, 2021. 

The bank’s asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling by 69 basis points (bps) sequentially to 4.13%. 

Net NPA ratio fell to 0.85% from 0.99% on September 30, 2021. This is the lowest since March 31, 2014.

During the quarter, net deletions from gross NPAs stood at Rs 191 crore, excluding write-offs and sale, compared to net additions of Rs 96 crore in the September quarter.

Fresh slippages declined to Rs 4,018 crore from Rs 5,578 crore in the September quarter and Rs 7,231 crore in the year-ago quarter.

"Recoveries and upgrades of NPAs, excluding write-offs and sale, were Rs 4,209 crore in Q3. The gross NPAs written off in Q3 were Rs 4,088 crore. Excluding NPAs, the total fund based outstanding to all borrowers under resolution as per the various extant regulations/guidelines was Rs 9,684 crore," the bank said.

Advances for the quarter grew 16.44% to Rs 8.14 trillion while deposits rose 16.37% to Rs 10.17 trillion. Average CASA (current account savings account) was 45% in the December quarter. 

ICICI Bank's retail loan portfolio grew 19% over the previous year and 5% sequentially. It comprised over 61% of its total loan portfolio as on December 31, 2021. Including non-fund outstanding, the retail loan portfolio was 51.3% of the total portfolio at December 31, 2021, the bank said. The value of credit card spends in Q3-2022 was 2.2 times the value of credit card spends in Q3-2021 and grew by 27% sequentially. 

Business banking portfolio grew 39% over the previous period and 9% sequentially, while SME operations comprising borrowers with a turnover of less than Rs 250 crore grew 34% over the previous year and 10% sequentially. Domestic wholesale banking portfolio grew 13% over the previous year and 9% sequentially.

The bank has restructured loans worth Rs 4,500.51 crore under Reserve Bank of India’s second Covid-19 resolution framework. Overall, the bank’s restructured book under various restructuring frameworks is to the tune of Rs 9,684 crore or 1.2% of total advances at the end of December quarter. The bank holds provisions amounting to Rs 2,436 crore against these borrowers. The average tenure of the moratorium is 6 to 12 months.

The lender said that during the nine-month period it wrote back covid related provisions of Rs 1,050 crore and accordingly held covid-related provisions of Rs 6,425 crore as on December 31, 2021.

ICICI Bank’s mobile banking app, IMobile, has 53 lakh activations from non-ICICI Bank account holders as of end-December 2021. “The value of transactionsby non-ICICI Bank account holders increased by 73%  sequentially in Q3-2022,” the bank said.

The bank’s other digital platform, InstaBIZ, also saw strong growth and the value of financial transactions grew by about 68% over the previous year.

The value of the bank’s merchant acquiring transactions through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Q3 FY22 was 2.2 times the value of transactions a year ago. The value of mobile banking transactions grew 50% YoY to Rs 4,55,326 crore.