Mumbai: India's second largest lender, ICICI Bank, has seen growth returning in its home and auto loans portfolios in the second quarter on the back of improving sentiments in the credit market, its chief said.
The bank, however, expects lending rates in the
industry to harden in the second-half of the year in line with
the pick-up in loan off-take.
The bank said that it has aligned its lending rates
with the market.
"There is growth already seen in auto and home
loans...in the latter part of this fiscal, I expect that
project finances will also pick up...we will continue to focus
on home, auto and infrastructure loan segments," ICICI Bank's
Managing Director and CEO, Chanda Kochhar, said.
With a revival expected in the economy, credit
off-take is expected to improve in the second-half of this
fiscal and corporates are expected to resume their projects,
Kochhar said on the sidelines of a FICCI-IBA seminar here.
Noting that lending rates have bottomed out in the
second quarter, Kochhar said that rates will gradually start
rising in the second-half of the year with a pick-up in credit
off-take.
"Lending rates have bottomed out in the second
quarter...gradually rates will harden...from here credit
off-take will pick up very gradually and the increase (in
rates) will be in line with the pick-up in credit off-take,"
Kochhar said.
With builders correcting housing prices, demand has
returned in the home loan market, Kochhar said.
However, demand continues to be low in those quarters
where correction is yet to happen, she said.
Also, with bond yields rising, banks are unlikely to
record a significant revenue from the treasury side in the
second quarter, Kochhar said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, September 08, 2009, 14:50