ICICI Bank expects 50% growth in retail portfolio this fiscal

ICICI Bank expects its retail portfolio to cross the Rs 50,000-crore mark and touch Rs 50,138 crore by the end of March 31, 2005 "" a 50 per cent growth over last year.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of ICICI Bank's 'Driversmart', a co-branded petrocard for transporters in association with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, V Vaidyanathan, head-retail banking, ICICI Bank said that the bank expects its retail portfolio to grow by 50 per cent during the current financial year.

When asked whether there will be further increase in housing loans rates, Vaidyanathan said that the interest rate increase witnessed in the last few months were more or less stabilised now, showing trends that there will not be any volatility.

At present, the bank's portfolio was over Rs 40,000 crore and the housing segment was the major growth driver, contributing nearly 50 per cent of the retail portfolio.

The bank disbursements was Rs 18,000 crore for half year ending September 30, 2004 compared to Rs 11,500 crore for the same period last year.

He said that there were six million debit cards and 2.6 million credit cards. The net non-performing assets (NPA) of the retail portfolio were 0.7 per cent, which includes credit cards also. Spends on co-branded credit cards were 30 per cent higher than compared to ordinary credit cards.

'Drivesmart' is application card and the basic applications include purchases of fuel, lubricants and auto parts at various HPCL dealer outlets. Apart from ensuring cash-less secured payments at select 600 participating HPCL retail outlets across the highway with an interest free credit of up to 21 days.

ICICI Bank and HPCL already have a pre-paid fleet card product 'HP DriveTrack" in the market launched in October, last year. Vaidyanathan said that about five lakh trucks were using these fuel credit cards amounting to an outstanding of Rs 4,000 crore.