Shrugging off concerns about the quarterly losses made by IDFC First Bank, its Managing Director and CEO V Vaidyanathan remains optimistic, and said that this would be the “short-term, myopic view”.

“If you have a fundamentally good model of financing small entrepreneurs and individuals, the demand is unlimited in India. All it needs is fuel and that fuel comes from the bank,” he said at FIBAC 2019, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Indian Banks’ Association.

“Merger should not be seen in terms of losses, but in terms of longevity of an institution,” he stressed, noting that even before the merger, the focus of infrastructure financing was not going anywhere for IDFC Bank.

Later, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines, Vaidyanathan said the bank’s incremental numbers and margins are strong.

“Our retail book is about ₹44,000 crore. At the time of merger it was about ₹36,000 crore, so in the last six months, we have grown by ₹8,000 crore. We believe we want to be a bank continuously financing small entrepreneurs and consumers in a significant way and provide other solutions,” he stressed.

IDFC First Bank was formed with the merger of erstwhile IDFC Bank and Capital First.

The private sector lender had reported a net loss of ₹617.35 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2019, against a net profit of ₹181 crore a year ago. It had also reported a net loss of ₹218 crore in the fourth quarter last fiscal

Even for the full financial year 2018-19, the lender posted a net loss of ₹1,944 crore, when compared to a net profit of ₹859.3 crore.

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