Axis Bank Ltd — Q4 FY25
Axis Bank reported a steady Q4 FY25 with core operating profit up 11% YoY and NIM improving 4 bps QoQ to 3.97%.
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Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
41%Questions answered4Evaded / deflected11Questions audited
Partial answer
High priority
How to think about rate cut transmission into NIMs, specifically borrowings and SLR investments.
Asked by Chintan Joshi, Autonomous Research
Answered conceptually but declined to provide specific duration or quantitative impact.
no specific duration givendeferred to annual report for duration disclosures
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Question
Can I start with some commentary around how to think about the rate cut cycle and the translation of that into your NIMs? Specifically, I'm interested in how we should think about transmission on your borrowings and on your SLR investment portfolios.
Puneet Sharma, AVP
We manage our balance sheet on a duration basis. We have a tightly matched duration on assets and liabilities. On rate transmission across assets, we are policy-led. On liability repricing, we've done savings account rate cut and moderation on retail term deposit rates.
Evasive
Medium priority
How much of month-end deposit growth has been retained post-quarter end?
Asked by Chintan Joshi, Autonomous Research
Acknowledged the question but refused to provide any retention data, deferring to future reporting.
no number givendeferred to next quarter
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Question
On your growth, you flagged 7% month-end balance growth. How much of that month-end balance has been retained to date?
Puneet Sharma, AVP
We do not offer comment on how much of that money stays retained. You will see that visible in our quarter one reporting number.
Partial answer
High priority
Quantify impact of tightened provisioning policy on FY2026 and details on security receipts write-back.
Asked by Mahrukh Adajania, Nuvama Institutional Equities
Provided specific numbers on SR write-back but did not quantify the FY2026 impact of tightened provisioning.
no quantification of FY2026 impact
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Question
You said that you have tightened provisioning policy, and that could impact FY 2026. Could you just quantify whether it would be like an immaterial impact or a material impact, and what has tightened?
Puneet Sharma, AVP
We have written back provisions of INR 801 crore on security receipts. We have INR 537 crore of interest not booked. The provisioning policies remain the tightest. We tweaked how we classify assets at the margin, relating to one-time settlements.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Provide quantification of Citi integration synergy benefits and outcomes.
Asked by Anand Swaminathan, Bank of America
Described qualitative outcomes but did not provide any quantitative synergy figures.
no specific numbers on synergy benefits
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Question
It's been almost two years since the merger. Can you provide us some color or some quantification in terms of where all you have seen these benefits and where have been the most positive outcomes in terms of synergies?
Subrat Mohanty, Executive Director
We had a specific plan over six quarters. At the end of six quarters, we came a bit ahead of the plan in terms of the synergy benefits. It ticked all the boxes. Additional benefits were improving premium base and seasoned credit card customers.
Answered
High priority
Confirm if credit card portfolio stabilizing while personal loans take longer.
Asked by Kunal Shah, Citigroup
Confirmed the analyst's understanding and provided clear explanation.
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Question
Your comment on personal loans and credit cards, if I heard correctly, you mentioned that there is stabilization in the credit card portfolio, while personal loan might take slightly longer to stabilize. Was that the right comment?
Puneet Sharma, AVP
Yes, you heard the comment correctly. The card portfolio is stabilizing, and the personal loan portfolio will take a few more quarters to show improvement. The vintages have not matured enough for a concrete outlook.
Evasive
Medium priority
Why credit card stabilizing earlier than personal loans? Any particular cohort?
Asked by Kunal Shah, Citigroup
Did not explain the divergence or identify any specific cohort, deflecting with general statements.
no specific reason givendeclined to provide further color
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Question
It is like credit card seems to be stabilizing earlier than the P&L. Any particular reason for that, any particular cohort being that kind of a problem?
Puneet Sharma, AVP
Underwriting is not an exact science. The card corrections have started playing through. We do not think there is further color that we have at the moment to offer on the P&L portfolio.
Declined
High priority
What will trigger loan growth to catch up with industry average?
Asked by Kunal Shah, Citigroup
Explicitly declined to provide any guidance or timeline for loan growth catching up.
no guidance givenrefused to provide outlook
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Question
When should we start even loan growth maybe following the industry average? It's still lagging like three or four percentage points to industry average.
Puneet Sharma, AVP
We do not offer guidance. I think Amitabh has said how we see our business shape up and the confidence that we have in the franchise, we do not have guidance to offer for FY 2026.
Partial answer
High priority
Will loan growth pick up ahead of deposit growth given LCR release and excess SLR?
Asked by Abhishek, HSBC
Provided a conditional response without a clear yes/no on loan growth outpacing deposit growth.
no clear directional answerconditional on liquidity
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Question
Do you think the loan growth should now pick up ahead of deposit growth in the, let's say, foreseeable future? I don't want a number or a guidance, but just logically thinking through this.
Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO
If the liquidity in the system continues to be there, it will hopefully flow through growth in deposits. We do believe we have the franchise to grow retail asset classes. In a constrained deposit environment, we give limited money to highest ROC assets.
Answered
Medium priority
Any second-order impact from trade tariffs on asset quality?
Asked by Harsh Wardhan Modi, J.P. Morgan
Directly answered that impact is negligible based on their analysis.
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Question
Foreign loans are small, about 4%, but any second-order impact from trade and tariffs on asset quality? Not right away, early days, but let's say 3, 6, 12 months down the line.
Rajiv Anand, Deputy Managing Director
We've done a fairly elaborate bottom-up work on impact on tariffs across industries. At this point in time, on everything that we know around tariffs, the impact on the portfolio is negligible.
Partial answer
High priority
Clarify tweaks to provisioning policy and impact on FY2026 upgrades/recoveries.
Asked by Rikin Shah, IIFL Capital Services
Explained the nature of tweaks but did not quantify the impact on slippages or recoveries.
no quantification of impact
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Question
Could you clarify what are the tweaks that we are making in certain accounts which would impact the asset quality next year? And did I hear correctly that the implications of this would be visible in upgrades and recoveries in FY 2026?
Puneet Sharma, AVP
We have said the way we look to we are getting more stringent on how we classify accounts, not upgrade accounts. An example is how we deal with one-time settlement. This change could impact FY 2026 slippages over FY 2025.
Evasive
High priority
Quantify the marginal impact of provisioning policy change for FY2026.
Asked by M B Mahesh, Kotak
Used vague language ('marginal') without any quantification, despite analyst asking for a number.
no specific number givenvague qualitative term 'marginal'
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Question
Is it possible to quantify as to if you were to look at FY 2025 as an example, what would that quantum look like? Just trying to understand the materiality of what is being discussed here.
Puneet Sharma, AVP
It will be marginal. It will not be exponential. It was argued you could flag it off, so we flagged it off.
Answered
Low priority
Was there any impact of lower number of days in the quarter on reported NIMs?
Asked by Ankit Bihani, Nomura
Directly answered that day count impact is negligible and provided breakdown of NIM improvement.
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Question
I just wanted to know if there is any impact of the lower number of days in the quarter towards the reported NIMs.
Puneet Sharma, AVP
The day impact is negligible to non-existent in our book. The four basis points improvement is improvement in asset quality, two basis points. Improvement in spread, two basis points. Also, spread improvement to two basis points.