BHUBANESWAR: Even as huge bad loans continue to dent profits, ICICI Bank is certainly in a sweet spot on the retail business. And to sweeten the deal, the bank aims to further spread its network into the hinterlands of Odisha, among other states.
Buoyed by robust growth, the private sector bank intends to grow its disbursement of retail loans to Rs 1,700 crore in Odisha and double its home loan disbursement to Rs 800 crore this fiscal, in line with its plan to ramp up home loans in a big way.
“In FY18, retail loans of home, auto and business grew faster in the state in comparison to the bank’s overall retail loan growth in the country of over 20 per cent. With robust growth in the economy of the state, this fiscal too, we see potential to grow faster in Odisha than the national average,” Anup Bagchi, executive director of the bank, said on Friday.
According to Bagchi, the affordability index for homes is at its peak. “We foresee that a large part of the growth will come from the affordable housing segment, mostly in the Tier-II, Tier-III and Tier-IV locations,” he said.
Bagchi added that the bank is expanding its presence across the small pockets of the state, billed as key drivers for home loans, including Balasore, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Jajpur, Angul and Bhadrak.
The bank, which operates from 1,500 locations in the country in the home loan space, plans to take it to 2,000 in the coming year. The new locations will mainly cater to the semi-urban and rural markets.
To put into perspective, the bank in its investor presentation after the first quarter results had highlighted that its retail banking has increased profits to Rs 2,046 crore from Rs 1,686 crore a year ago. Of the total retail loan portfolio, home loan book constitutes around 52 per cent, said Bagchi.