Banks on a branch-opening-spree across India

In an attempt to capitalise on the purple patch in credit growth and to maintain the physical-plus-online approach in the banking sector, many banks are opening new branches across India.

As per The Economic Times report, HDFC alone opened 684 branches in the December quarter, while ICICI Bank started 300 branches between April and December 2022.

Taking about opening physical branches, Srinivasan Vaidyanathan, Chief Financial Officer of HDFC Bank said, “We are pursuing a branch build strategy and have another 600 branches in the pipeline."

Also Read | HDFC Bank's Q3 net profit jumps 18.5% to Rs 12,259 crore

Axis Bank has added 91 branches so far this fiscal to take its total branch strength to 4,849 at the end of December 2022.

"During the quarter, we added nearly 6,000 VLEs (village level entrepreneurs) to take our overall CSC VLE network to more than 60,200...They would act as extended arms for our 2,065 Bharat branches," said Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director of Axis Bank.

IndusInd Bank also added 341 branches during April-December, taking the total branches to 2,384.

According to Reserve Bank of India’s data, banks in India had 127,915 branches in all, out of which 84,534 branches belonged to public sector banks while 37,223 branches were added by private sector banks.