HDFC Bank's CEO acknowledges post-merger challenges, cites economic factors, and focuses on deposit growth while maintaining liquidity.
HDFC Bank's MD & CEO, Sashidhar Jagdishan, acknowledged the challenges in the landscape post-merger with parent HDFC, citing tight liquidity due to global economic changes, including the RBI's repo rate hikes and draining of surplus liquidity. Consumer preferences shifted towards mutual funds, equities, and real estate. Despite this, the bank is focusing on branch expansion and prioritizing deposit growth over credit growth. HDFC Bank aims to maintain adequate liquidity buffers and plans to grow advances at a slower pace than its deposit growth to bring down the credit-to-deposit ratio. The bank's part-time chairman, Atanu Chakraborty, highlighted the bright prospects of the Indian economy and the merger's positive impact on the bank's growth and ability to serve customers.