High provisions, poor asset quality hit pvt banks in Q1

FALLING ASSET QUALITY, rising provisions and continuing pressure on net interest took a toll on the earnings of private sector banks in the first quarter of FY26.

- KSHIPRA PETKAR

However, this was largely in line with analyst expectations.

Overall, the net profit of 15 private sector banks fell 3.3% year-on-year. This data includes the top five — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and IndusInd Bank — who have announced their Q1 numbers till now.

Among the Nifty-50 banks, ICICI Bank saw highest year-on-year growth in net profit, rising 15.5% on year to ₹12,768.2 crore. This was followed by HDFC Bank which reported a net profit of ₹18,155 crore, up 12.2% on year. IndusInd Bank saw a net profit of ₹684 crore after reporting a loss of over ₹2,000 crore in the previous quarter.

Axis Bank saw a fall of nearly 4% in its net profit in the reporting quarter. YES Bank posted its best quarterly profit since restructuring.

Kotak Mahindra Bank saw its net profit fall 7% for the same time period.