Mumbai, Jul 19 (PTI) ICICI Bank on Saturday posted a 15.9 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit for the June quarter to Rs 13,558 crore compared to Rs 11,696 crore in the year-ago period.

On a standalone basis, the country's second-largest private sector lender reported a net profit of Rs 12,768 crore for the quarter, up 15.5 per cent from Rs 11,059 crore a year ago.

Its core net interest income increased 10.6 per cent to Rs 21,635 crore on the back of a 12 per cent domestic loan growth, but was restricted by a narrowing of the net interest margin to 4.34 per cent from 4.41 per cent in the quarter-ago period.

The bank's executive director Sandeep Batra pointed to some more pain in the offing on the NIMs front, especially with the RBI's rate cut cycle still on.

"We do expect the NIMs to sort of compress a little more in the next quarter," he told reporters, adding that the future trajectory will be decided by the RBI's actions and the overall liquidity in the system.

The other income, excluding treasury operations, recorded a 13.7 per cent jump to Rs 7,264 crore.

From an asset growth perspective, the bank slowed down growth in the riskier credit card and personal loans segment to over 1 per cent each after multiple quarters of maintaining it at over 20 per cent.

Batra said there is no specific reason for the slowdown, but pointed out that the number is influenced by the demand factor as well.

When asked about the slower growth in retail assets, he said the bank does recalibrations to its credit norms and added that there is an overall slowdown in the market as well.

The corporate loans grew more slowly than expected because of competitive pricing options available to borrowers.

From an asset quality perspective, the fresh slippages came at a slightly higher level of Rs 6,245 crore, but the bank management made it clear that it is comfortable with the quality of the portfolio.

The overall provisions, excluding the ones for taxes, stood at Rs 1,815 crore compared to Rs 1,332 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said.

The gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 1.67 per cent as of June 30 from 2.15 per cent in the year-ago period.

Batra said the bank expects the economy to fare better in the second half of the fiscal year, and the banking system will be a beneficiary of this as credit demand increases.

The overall deposit growth came at 12.8 per cent for the reporting quarter, the bank said, adding that it added 83 branches to take its overall network to 7,066 branches as of June 30.

ICICI Bank's overall capital adequacy stood at 16.97 per cent, with the core buffer level at over 16 per cent. Batra said the bank does not foresee any immediate need for a capital raising exercise.

Among its subsidiaries, the life insurance arm delivered a PAT increase to Rs 302 crore in Q1 against Rs 225 crore in the year-ago period, the general insurance arm's PAT jumped by nearly 29 per cent to Rs 747 crore, while ICICI Securities' net profit declined to Rs 391 crore from Rs 527 crore. PTI AA BAL BAL

Net interest margin pressure expected as monetary easing and liquidity shifts affect bank lending returns and funding spreads. ICICI Bank reported profit growth but expects further compression of the net interest margin due to the ongoing RBI rate cut cycle and liquidity conditions; core net interest income rose on loan growth despite margin narrowing. Asset quality showed year-on-year improvement in gross NPAs though fresh slippages rose modestly; provisions increased and capital adequacy remained robust with a substantial core buffer, reducing the immediate need for capital raising.