HDFC Bank opens 275 branches this fiscal

In a bid to increase its footprint, the country's second-largest lender HDFC Bank opened 275 branches in the current fiscal taking its total network to 2,000.

The bank had a distribution network of 1,725 branches in 779 cities as of March, 2010 which increased to 1,780 branches by the end of December 2010.

About 220 branches were added to the network in the last few months.

With the opening of new branches, the bank's reach has crossed 1,000 cities. Besides, the bank has overseas presence in Hong Kong and Bahrain.

As per the annual report for 2009-10, the bank opened over 300 new branches during the year. The bank's focus on semi-urban and underbanked markets continued, with 68% of the bank's branches now outside the top nine Indian cities.

The bank, which has over 1.8 crore customers, acquired Centurion Bank of Punjab leading to the integration of 404 branches in 2008.

For the quarter ended December 2010, the bank reported a 33% growth in its net profit at Rs 1,088 crore compared to the same period a year ago.

Total income of the bank rose to Rs 6,357.8 crore at the end of the December quarter, from Rs 4,933.9 crore in the same period last year.

The bank's net interest income went up by 24.9% to Rs 2,777 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal.

The bank's net interest margin (NIM) remained static at 4.2% in the third quarter. NIM, which is the difference between interest income of a bank and interest paid, was 4.4% at the end of December 2009.