Mumbai: India’s private sector lenders are building a war chest of provisions that would come handy in cushioning against future asset slippages owing to the covid-19 pandemic.
While Axis Bank has pegged its covid-19 provisions at ₹3,000 crore, ICICI Bank said it has set aside ₹2,725 crore in the March quarter and HDFC Bank made additional provisions of ₹1,550 crore in the wake of the pandemic.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to set aside 10% of the outstanding loans where the three-month moratorium was given.
This has to be done in two tranches of 5% each in the March and the June quarter. According to Sashidhar Jagdishan, head of finance at HDFC Bank, the lender has enough buffer of credit reserve to be able to withstand