ICICI staff may get bonus as profits soar

Encouraged by rising profits in the second quarter, ICICI Bank [ Get Quote ] CEO Chanda Kochhar [ Images ] has said the lender would consider rewarding its employees with bonus, which it skipped last year on account of poor performance.

"I am still hoping that we should be able to give bonus by the end of fiscal," ICICI Bank CEO and managing director Chanda Kochhar told PTI.

ICICI Bank has about 36,000 employees and would increase the headcount as it opens 580 new branches during the year.

The country's largest private sector bank at the end of 2007-08 paid Rs 43.24 lakh to the then CEO and managing director K V Kamath [ Images ], while Chanda Kochhar got Rs 22.44 lakh.

For the quarter ended September 2009, ICICI Bank reported a 2.6 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 1,040 crore (Rs 10.40 billion) from Rs 1,014 crore (Rs 10.14 billion)in the same period a year-back.

Consolidated net profit rose 76 per cent in the quarter to Rs 1,144.57 crore (Rs 11.44 billion) on lower losses in life insurance business and higher profits in other subsidiaries.

However, the total income declined to Rs 14,595.85 crore (Rs 145.95 billion) during the July-September quarter from Rs 15,590.46 crore (Rs 155.90 billion) in the same period a year ago.

The bank's net non-performing assets, as on September 30, stood at 2.36 per cent compared to 1.91 per cent in the year-ago period.