The first quarter of FY 2010-11 seems to have been quite good for the third largest private sector lender of the country, Axis Bank. While the bank has put profit growth which is in same line as the ones posted in the last three quarters, the show stopper for the bank this time has been the 39% growth it put on its loan book on a year-on-year basis.

With the aggregate banking credit coming to 20% for Q1, it is quite evident that the chances of any other bank growing its loan book at a pace faster than Axis Bank is quite unlikely.

The June quarter saw the bank's credit to large and mid corporates grow by 55%. At the same time the bank has been able to maintain the quality of its assets. The non performing asset (NPA) level of the bank has dipped during this quarter.

The net NPAs in June quarter stood at 0.35% of advances as compared to 0.41% for the same period last year.

There has been a dip in the percentage of CASA deposits of the bank. At the end of Q1 the CASA deposits formed 40% of the total deposits of the bank.

The bank has a provision coverage ratio at 77% which is higher than the 70% threshold set by banking regulator, RBI.