Large banks with strong balance sheet to grow faster: Axis Bank CEO

Large banks with strong balance sheet would continue to grow faster than their peers in an environment impacted by the pandemic, and sustained fiscal and monetary support by the government and the RBI would help economic recovery by the second half of this fiscal, Axis Bank's top official said.

The impact of the second wave of COVID-19 continues, Axis Bank Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry said.

"I...hope that the acceleration in vaccination drives and continued fiscal and monetary measures by the government and the (banking) regulator would help the economy to recover from this pandemic by H2 of fiscal 2021-22," Chaudhry said in the bank's annual report for 2020-21.

Axis Bank will further strengthen its core, he said adding that the building blocks are firmly in place with granularity built across businesses, improving operational performance, strong capital and balance sheet position to counter any unforeseen risks arising out of second COVID-19 wave.

He said the medium-term growth drivers are firmly in place on the back of several initiatives taken by the government to boost manufacturing and small industries, and the recent shift in global manufacturing supply chain dynamics towards India.

"In such an environment, large banks with healthy operational performance, strong balance sheet and capital position, superior risk management, and operational capabilities would continue to grow faster than the overall sector," Chaudhry said in his message to shareholders in the annual report.

During 2020-21, the bank's focus was on building granularity across businesses coupled with strong focus on execution that helped it deliver strong growth across focused segments, he said.

The bank's CASA (current account savings account) deposits grew 20 per cent, with the share of CASA increasing by 3.72 percentage points to 45 per cent in overall deposits. The retail savings accounts grew 19 per cent, while the current accounts rose 26 per cent.

"Our corporate loan book, including TLTRO, grew 16 per cent, with significantly higher growth across our focussed segments like mid-corporates and MNC. Retail disbursements touched all-time highs during the fourth quarter (January-March 2021)," he said.

TLTRO is targeted long-term repo operations.

Axis Bank reported a 305 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 6,588 crore during 2020-21.

"Our domestic subsidiaries delivered 75 per cent yearly growth in net profits. Our focus still continues to be further scaling up the subsidiaries so that they gain higher market share in their respective businesses," said the official.