The Hindu Business Line : Rates to remain stable till fiscal-end, says Chanda Kochhar

New Delhi, Nov.10 Ms Chanda Kochhar, CEO and Managing Director, ICICI Bank, said on Tuesday that interest rates are likely to remain stable till the end of the fiscal.

“As of now, interest rates should stay stable for some time, at least till March,” Ms Kochhar told newspersons on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit.

This comes at a time when public sector banks State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have announced cuts in their deposit rates.

On the lending scenario, she said that credit off-take, especially for home and auto loans, has shown significant improvement. “In retail lending, we’re focussing on home and auto loans, besides corporate loans for project financing which is not growing as fast,” she said.

She further added that corporates are talking about financial closure of up to $250 billion in infrastructure and project loans between now and 2012. “We will see more of this in the next 4-5 months,” she said.

ICICI Bank aims to cut down its retail loan portfolio to 5.0 per cent by March, from the current 6.0 per cent.

Ms Kochhar also said that a change in credit parameter, besides other things, has led to a decline in the bank’s non- performing assets (NPAs) and provisions quarter on quarter.

“If you saw last quarter of the fiscal, our NPAs were actually lower. The NPA peak is behind us and it should only get better. We’re hopeful of an improving trend,” she said.