ICICI Bank eyes 11% home loan growth in Maha

Reflecting the overall falling demand for everything, including bank loans, as the general slowdown deepens, private sector lender ICICI Bank is targeting an 11 percent home loan growth in Maharashtra this fiscal, a senior official said Wednesday. According to the latest RBI data, system-wide bank credit growth has slowed to 10.24 percent for the fortnight to August 30 at Rs 96.80 lakh crore, down from 11.64 percent at Rs 96.82 lakh crore in the previous fortnight to August 16 as the industrial credit has been languishing in mid-single- digits all through the year so far.

ICICI Bank is targeting to disburse Rs 4,200 crore of home loans in the western state, excluding Mumbai, executive director Anup Bagchi said. It can be noted that Maharashtra is the most-banked state, thanks to the presence of the nation's financial capital and also due to wider industrialization.

The more resilient retail lending has been the mainstay for lenders in the face of the deepening slump, which has impacted both demands as well as bankers' appetite to lend to corporates, most of which are either over-leveraged or facing heavy demand headwinds. For ICICI Bank, retail loans have been growing at around 20 percent, fuelled largely by the high-value mortgage loans. System-level loan growth came at 13 percent in FY19.

Maharashtra is a mature home loan market with high denominator and ICICI Bank has been growing loans at 10-12 percent itself. The bank is targeting for overall loan growth of 20 percent in the state for the full fiscal with a disbursement target of Rs 13,000 crore, Bagchi said.

The bank expects personal, car and two-wheeler, commercial vehicle and gold loans to grow 22 percent to nearly Rs 4,500 crore, Bagchi added. Retail loans have been witnessing significant growth in the state over the past few years as its economy has been on a better keel compared to most other states, he said.

A significant driver of this growth will be the technology-led instant loan offerings, he added. In the mortgage portfolio, the focus is to drive affordable housing loans by focusing on cities like Solapur, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Nagpur, and outskirts of Pune-Talegaon, Chakan, Moshi, and Wagholi among others.

It is also expanding its home loan proposition to small towns like Kolhapur and Satara. That apart, the bank is also planning to ramp up its credit processing units in Ratnagiri, Talegaon, Ahmednagar, Amravati, Dhule, and Khopoli.