MUMBAI: ICICI Bank Ltd India’s posted a 15 per cent rise in quarterly net profit, beating estimates, helped by rising demand for loans from retail customers and higher fee income.

ICICI’s net profit in March rose to 26.52 billion rupees ($434.36 million) from 23.04 billion rupees a year earlier, the bank said on Friday.Indian banks have recently shifted their focus from corporate lending to consumer debt in a bid to avoid an increase in bad loans by companies struggling in a economy growing at its slowest pace in a decade.

ICICI said its loan book grew an annual 17 per cent to 3.4 trillion rupees as of end of March. Retail loans grew faster at 23 percent. ICICI’s net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, also rose 14.6 percent to 43.57 billion rupees in the quarter. Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.35 percent.