Axis Bank is keeping a close eye on asset quality in personal loans, says CEO

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₹50,000. The bank’s personal loan book grew 25% year-on-year (yoy) to ₹61,168 crore as of 30 September, but Chaudhry said growth will not come at the risk of higher credit cost. About 24% of the bank’s retail book was unsecured.

Housing loans — which are secured — comprised the bank's largest retail loan segment, accounting for 31% of all such loans. “We have made the statement quite clearly that we are planning to grow based on risk guardrails we have set for ourselves. This growth is not coming [by] compromising on what we believe is the right kind of risk to take," Chaudhry said.

Large lenders, including non-banks, have recently red-flagged incipient risks from small personal loans – those below ₹50,000. According to TransUnion Cibil, such loans accounted for about 2% of all personal loans. “Right now, in our portfolio we are not seeing anything that is telling us that our risk framework is not working.

Obviously, we are monitoring what is happening in the economy, we are monitoring where some of the stress is building up and watching it very closely and you can expect us to [continue to] do that going forward," said Chaudhry. “We do see growth momentum continuing at this point in time," he added. According to Sumit Bali, group executive and head of retail lending at Axis Bank, said the bank has chosen to stay away from the sub- ₹50,000 personal loan segment, which has seen higher delinquency rates.

“That is a segment clouding a lot of assessment about this business," he added. Axis Bank on Wednesday reported a net profit of ₹5,864 crore in the September quarter of FY24 on the back of higher income, beating estimates. According to a Bloomberg consensus estimate, the bank expected was to post a net profit of ₹5,754