Axis Bank's fundraising through Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), or FCNR(B), deposits will push its deposit market share above the current level of about 5%, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Chaudhary told NDTV Profit in an exclusive interview.
Chaudhary declined to disclose the exact amount raised by Axis Bank through the FCNR(B) route and the External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) swap facility, but said the bank is among the top raisers of such funds in the banking system.
"I can just assure you that we are one of the top banks. I have seen the data for some of the others, but I can only say that Axis Bank is in the list of some of the one of the top banks in terms of the amount of money we have raised. We're quite happy with the amount. We will decide and we will disclose the data at the right time," Chaudhary said.
On how the funds are being used, he said: "The money which we have raised, we are deploying it for our credit growth. And at the same time, we are also using it to ensure that we can pay down some of the expensive deposits."
Chaudhary said the scale of the inflows had surprised the market, prompting the Reserve Bank of India to withdraw some liquidity from the system. "Hopefully, this money will get consumed in the next couple of quarters and help obviously in the credit growth which this economy needs, and also bring in some liquidity and deposit growth which has been lagging behind for some time," he said.
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"I can assure you that Axis Bank is one of the higher contributors in that list of banks which has raised money through FCNR(B). I'm sure it will be on the top funds as well," Chaudhary added.
Asked if the FCNR(B) inflows would push Axis Bank's deposit market share above its current level of about 5%, Chaudhary said: "Oh, absolutely. It will be above our current deposit market share."
Pressed on whether the increase would take the share into double digits, he said: "I don't want to triage on the number, but yeah, the number is pretty reasonable."
NIMs To Turn Positive Once FCNR(B) Funds Are Deployed
On the trade-off between protecting margins and using the FCNR(B) inflows to accelerate balance sheet growth, Chaudhary said: "Initially, when such a large amount of money comes in, you can't deploy it overnight. It has to go into government securities or things of that nature. Whoever raises larger amounts of FCNR(B) might see a dip in NIMs initially. Then this money will get deployed, maybe on the wholesale side of the business, and then finally in retail. You can also use the money to pay off some deposits, or not renew the deposits that are coming at a price higher than what you have raised your FCNR(B) deposits at."
"In that sense, there will be one or two quarters where you might see NIMs moving sideways or down, but finally it will lead to a positive impact on NIMs. There are one or two quarters where you would see a wobble, for obvious reasons," he said.
"We are very sure that will be temporary. Finally, FCNR(B) will be additive to NIMs, not a very large number, but additive rather than a drag," Chaudhary said.
He reiterated that Axis Bank has already seen the bottom of its NIMs, excluding the impact of FCNR(B) inflows, pointing to a 34-basis-point decline flagged in an earlier quarterly call. "We have also said, when we did our quarterly call last time, that we have seen the bottom of NIMs," he said.
On the broader rate outlook, Chaudhary said: "Let's not forget the fact that the pressure on inflation is building up, oil prices remain high, and our economists' expectation is that we could see higher rates over the next six to nine months." He added that a large part of Axis Bank's assets are linked to the reverse repo rate, which could support NIMs further if rates rise. "It could be a positive, but we are not relying on it. We are just saying that irrespective of what happens to interest rates, we have seen the bottom on NIMs, and hopefully the trajectory from here on will be positive."
The interview was conducted during the launch of Axis Bank's SPUR week 2026 from Lucknow, under which nearly 90 of the bank's leaders are engaging around 2.5 lakh customers across 6,000 branches. The bank has expanded its branch network in Uttar Pradesh by 68% over the last three years.
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