HDFC Bank confident of maintaining margins of 3.9-4.2%

Speaking to the channel, he says that power sector, infrastructure and real estate has got very little to do with the slowing of the economy. “So people who have lent to projects which have issues with either power supply or distribution will probably have to restructure them,” he says. However, Puri does not see this resulting in too much of a loss because there is demand for power in the country. “They will, nonetheless, need restructuring,” he says.

On lending to microfinance institutions, Puri says that some write-off will be required and HDFC Bank has provided for it.

Puri is confident that Basel III will not affect HDFC Bank. “We are largely compliant, our capital adequacy as of now is 16.4% out of which tier I is 11.5% plus; most of our deposits are customer deposits and we are provisioned to the extent of 100%,” he says. He says that the bank will not need capital for more than the next two years.