Aided by a healthy rise in treasury income, ICICI Bank’s net profits increased by 21 per cent to Rs 878 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, from Rs 728 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The largest private sector bank recorded a treasury income of Rs 714 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal against a loss of Rs 594 crore in the last fiscal.

Ms Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, said the bank saw a healthy growth in non-interest income and fee income. The bank maintained its Net Interest Margin at the same levels and controlled costs, all of which helped it post higher profits.

The NIM was maintained at 2.4 per cent.

The bank’s employee cost fell to Rs 466 crore (Rs 523 crore) and the direct market expenses fell to Rs 27 crore (Rs 228 crore).

The share of low-cost CASA (current account and savings account) increased to 30.4 per cent, as on June 30, 2009, from 27.6 per cent last year.

“We added about Rs 3,500 crore in CASA in the June quarter. The increase in CASA has definitely helped in lowering the cost of deposits and going ahead it will help in lowering the cost even more as we pay off older high cost deposits. This will help our Net Interest Margin,” Ms Kochhar said. However, she declined to comment on how much the cost of deposit had declined.

The asset and deposit growth was lower, keeping in with its policy of not growing the balance-sheet, but instead, focusing on curtailing costs and maintaining margins.

Provisions were higher at Rs 1,324 crore (Rs 792 crore).

Ms Kochhar said that provisions for retail assets were at the same level as the last year’s quarter, but declined to comment on how much they were. The bank also made additional provisions for some large corporate accounts which were restructured.

source: BL