Interest income for the quarter rose 12% to Rs 10,553 crore from Rs 9,413 crore a year ago. Interest expenses increased to Rs 4,876 crore in Q4FY26 from Rs 4,506 crore in Q4FY25, marking a nearly 8% rise.
Net interest income (NII), which is the difference between interest earned and interest paid, grew 16% to Rs 5,677.19 crore compared with Rs 4,907.16 crore in the year-ago quarter. Net interest margin (NIM) eased marginally by 2 basis points to 5.93% in Q4FY26 from 5.95% a year earlier.
Loans and advances rose 20% YoY and 4% QoQ to Rs 2.90 lakh crore in Q4FY26, while deposits grew more than 17% YoY to Rs 2.84 lakh crore, with sequential growth of 0.6%. CASA deposits stood at Rs 1.46 lakh crore in the January-March quarter, rising 24% from the same period last year, though declining 2.5% from the previous quarter.
The lender said 87% of the annual loan growth came from mortgage loans, vehicle loans, consumer loans, business banking and wholesale loans. Credit cards in force crossed the 4.5 million mark during Q4FY26. Its wealth management business, Private Wealth, grew 23% YoY to cross Rs 57,000 crore.
Provisions as a percentage of average loans declined steadily through FY26, falling from 2.69% in Q1FY26 to 2.24% in Q2FY26, 2.05% in Q3FY26 and 1.63% in Q4FY26. For the full year FY26, the ratio stood at 2.13%.
Regarding the Chandigarh branch incident, the bank fully expensed the impacted amount in Q4FY26, resulting in a post-tax impact of Rs 483 crore. The filing added that management is reasonably certain that no further material financial adjustments are required beyond those already recognised.Managing Director and CEO V Vaidyanathan said the micro-finance challenge was largely behind it; gross NPA and net NPA improved to 1.61% and 0.48%, respectively. Provisions in Q4FY26 fell to their lowest level in two years at 1.63% of loans, equivalent to 1.18% of assets.
He also said the first month of Q1FY27 has started strongly for deposits, and the bank remains confident of sustaining healthy deposit growth in line with past trends.
IDFC First Bank shares have gained 8% over the last one month, but the stock remains under pressure over a longer period. It is down 14% in the last six months and has declined 21% on a year-to-date basis.
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