Fall in provisions help ICICI Bank's net profit in Q4 FY26

ICICI Bank reported a 9% year on year increase in net profit in the quarter ended March 2026 mainly due to stable loan growth and net interest margin (NIM). Net profit increased to Rs 13,702 crore in the quarter ended March 2026 from Rs 12,630 crore also helped by a sharp drop in provisions.

Total advances increased by 16% year-on-year to Rs 15.53 lakh crore at the end of March 2026 led by a 24% growth in business banking and a 26% growth in the rural loan portfolio. Retail loans which constitute 50% of the loan book grew by 10% while corporate loans grew by 9% year on year.

NIM was little changed at 4.32% for the year ended March 2026. Net interest income (NII) or the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid for deposits, increased by 8% to Rs 22,979 crore in March 2026 from Rs 21,193 crore a year ago.

Executive director Sandeep Batra said the bank is monitoring the situation particularly due to the geopolitical uncertainties and will continue to focus on getting a higher wallet share of high quality customers.

A sharp drop in provisions contributed to the bank's profit growth during the quarter. Provisions fell 90% to Rs 96 crore from Rs 891 crore a year ago. Batra said the large year on year fall in provisions reflected strong asset quality and healthy recoveries from the corporate book.

"Our credit costs normalised for agriculture book is under 50 basis points which is very healthy in the current environment. There were also some corporate recoveries from written off accounts during the quarter which helped," Batra said.

Asset quality remianed stable with net NPA ratio at 0.33% on March 31, 2026 down from 0.39% a year ago. Recoveries and upgrades of NPAs, excluding write-offs and sale, were Rs 3,068 crore compared to Rs 3,817 crore a year ago. The provisioning coverage ratio on non-performing loans was 76% at the end of March 2026.

As of March 2026, the bank holds contingency provision of Rs 13,100 crore and additional standard asset provision of Rs 1,283 crore made in the third quarter on Reserve Bank directions in respect of the agricultural priority sector portfolio.

Fee income increased 8% to Rs 6,779 crore in March 2026 from Rs 6,306 crore a year ago with fees from retail, rural and business banking customers constituting about 78% of total fees during the quarter.

The bank suffered a treasury loss of Rs 106 crore during the quarter reflecting the RBI restrictions of non deliverable forwards and also the sharp rise in bond yields during the month of March. The bank had reported a treasury gain of Rs 239 crore a year ago. The bank's board has recommended a dividend of Rs 12 per share for FY2026.