Mumbai: Private sector lender IndusInd Bank on Wednesday said July-September net profit had more than doubled, helped by higher interest income and core fee income.

The bank’s net profit for the second quarter rose to Rs778.2 million, from Rs336.6 million a year ago.

Its net interest income rose 98% to Rs2.08 billion, while core fee income rose 44%, Romesh Sobti, managing director, told reporters.

“Core fee income was driven by higher sales of insurance, mutual fund and forex products,” Sobti said.

The bank’s net interest margin rose to 2.86%, from 1.68% a year ago as cost of deposits fell even as yield on loans remained stable, he said.

The bank’s vehicle finance disbursements were rising every quarter, helping growth of the loan book, he said adding the corporate loan book was driven by working capital requirements of companies.

Its net non-performing assets fell to 0.98%, from 2.21% on better recoveries and prudent provisioning, he said.

Loan Growth

The bank is targetting a loan growth of 25-30% in 2009-10, he said.

It also expects to maintain net interest margin at 2.86% in the October-December quarter. “We may see a slight drop in cost of deposits, while yield on advances will be same, helping us maintain the net interest margin,” he added.

He said the bank would be rolling out 30 branches by December to take the total number of branches to 210.

The bank also expects non-interest income to rise further with investment banking services contributing Rs250 million during the financial year 2009-10, he added.