HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector lender, expects loan growth of 17-18% this year due to strong credit demand. Effective July 1 parent mortgage firm HDFC Ltd merged with its subsidiary HDFC Bank to make it the second largest lender after State Bank of India.
Meanwhile, Keki Mistry, vice-chairman of the now-merged entity HDFC Ltd, has become the most valuable independent director. The market capitalization of listed companies including HDFC Bank of which he was an independent director is over ₹27 lakh crore.
Apart from HDFC Bank, it also has the boards of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDF Life, Torrent Power and Flipkart.
He is followed by former SBI chairman O P Bhatt; Chairman, Capacity Building Commission, Adil Zainulbhai; and former Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chaudhary. On the distribution front, Vaidyanathan said while the bank added 39 branches in the quarter, 1,482 branches were added in the last 12 months. Now the total number of branches stands at 7,860. Regarding cards, he said, the bank issued 1.5 million cards in the first quarter and the total number of cards stood at 18.4 million.
