IDFC First Bank posted a net profit of Rs 803 crore for Q4 FY23, up 134 per cent on the year, led by 43 per cent growth in operating income to ₹4,994 crore. For FY23, profit after tax was ₹2,437 crore in FY23 compared with ₹145 crore a year ago.

“We have registered our highest ever quarterly and yearly profit. Now the bank is firmly into profits, and we believe we can deliver strong financial performance from here on,” MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan said.

The bank’s advances were at ₹1.6 lakh crore as of March 31, up 24 per cent YoY.

In the investor call, Vaidyanathan said growth has been led by retail loans, where the bank is seeing healthy demand across segments, and loan growth going forward is not a concern for the bank at all.

Net Interest Income (NII) for the quarter was up 35 per cent YoY at ₹3,597 crore. For FY23, NII was higher by 30 per cent at ₹12,635 crore.

Fees and other income for Q4 grew 54 per cent YoY to ₹841 crore, of which 91 per cent was retail fees. Vaidyanathan said that the segment is growing well for the bank, led by Fastag and wealth management businesses, the latter of which is growing at around 40–50 per cent on the year.

During the quarter, the bank also had trading gains of ₹216 crore, which were owing to redemptions of some capital investments made by the bank, CFO Sudhanshu Jain said.

Deposits

Deposits were up 47 per cent YoY at ₹1.4 lakh crore at the end of March, of which retail deposits accounted for 76 per cent of the bank’s 53 per cent growth YoY, Jain said. He added that while term deposits grew faster due to the systemic rise in rates, the bank is also seeing strong traction in CASA deposits.

Provisions for the quarter were ₹404 crore, which included ₹79 crore added by the bank to improve the provision coverage ratio to 80.3 per cent as of March 31. On an overall basis, however, provisions are structurally coming down and will continue to do so in the coming quarters, Vaidyanathan said.

The gross NPA ratio of the bank was 2.5 per cent, and the net NPA ratio was 0.9 per cent, within which the figures for retail loans were 1.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.