India’s second-largest private lender, ICICI Bank, on Saturday reported a 35.8 per cent rise in net profit for the July-September quarter, driven by strong growth in core loan income and strong disposable growth.

Standalone net profit rose to a record 102.61 billion Indian rupees ($1.23 billion) in the second financial quarter, up from 75.58 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.

This figure is much higher than analyst estimates of IDR 96.26 billion based on LSEG data.

Net interest income – the difference between interest received and paid – rose 23.8 percent to IDR 183.08 billion.

Net interest margin – a key indicator of a lender’s profitability – was 4.53% in the reporting quarter, up from 4.31% a year ago, but down from 4.78% recorded in the previous quarter.

Net domestic loans increased by 19.3% year-on-year, while deposits increased by 18.8%.

ICICI Bank’s asset quality improved with a gross non-performing assets (NPA) ratio of 2.48% at end-September versus 2.76% at end-June.

The bank’s net non-performing assets ratio fell to 0.43% at the end of the quarter from 0.48% at the end of the previous quarter. ($1 = 83.1500 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Clelia Oziel and Tomasz Janowski)