IDFC First Bank Q2 Results, October 24, 2026: Profit Triples to ₹1,045 Crore on FCNR Deposit Surge

IDFC First Bank Q2 results came out on Saturday, October 24, 2026, and the profit line looks dramatic at first glance. Standalone net profit for the July-September quarter was ₹1,045 crore, up 196.5% from ₹352 crore in the same quarter last year. The jump is mostly a low base, though. Against the June quarter’s ₹1,075 crore, profit actually slipped by about 3%. Still, the bank has now crossed ₹1,000 crore of quarterly profit twice in a row. Figures here are standalone and come from the bank’s press release filed with NSE and its financial results for the quarter.

IDFC First Bank Q2 results in numbers

• Net profit: ₹1,045 crore, up 196.5% year-on-year. Profit for the first half (April-September) was ₹2,120 crore.
• Core operating profit (excluding trading gains): ₹2,527 crore, up 38.5% year-on-year.
• Total deposits: ₹3,48,583 crore, up 25.9% year-on-year and 11.8% over the June quarter.
• Loans and advances (including credit substitutes and FCNR(B)-backed loans): ₹3,46,913 crore, up 30.1%.
• Average CASA ratio: 48.4%, down from 50.1%.
• Return on assets (annualised): 0.93% for the quarter.

Where the deposit surge came from

The big story is foreign currency money. In the quarter the bank raised ₹34,390 crore, roughly US$3.6 billion, through FCNR(B) deposits, the foreign currency non-resident accounts that NRIs use. What makes this unusual is that IDFC First has no branch, subsidiary or representative office outside India, so this was raised largely through digital channels. The bank says these deposits mostly carry a three-to-five-year tenor and that their fully loaded cost, including priority sector lending benefits, is about 1 percentage point cheaper than raising domestic fixed deposits.

That inflow also flatters the growth numbers. Strip out loans secured against FCNR(B) deposits and loan growth drops to 22.2%, from the headline 30.1%. The bank also admits the move is “optically” dilutive for margins, because its balance sheet grew by ₹24,885 crore as its international banking unit lent against those deposits. The dip in the CASA ratio has the same cause. Kotak Mahindra Bank, which reported its Q2 results the same day, told a very similar FCNR story, so this looks like a sector-wide theme this quarter rather than a one-bank quirk.

Asset quality and costs

Bad loans kept easing. Gross NPA came down to 1.32% of gross advances from 1.51% in the June quarter and 1.86% a year ago. Net NPA was 0.40%, against 0.44% last quarter and 0.52% a year back. Credit cost fell to 1.01% of average assets.

On costs, the core cost-to-income ratio, which leaves out trading gains, improved to 70.16% from 70.73% in Q1. That is still high for a private bank, and it is the number we would keep watching. The bank says its operating expenses have grown about 500 basis points slower than income for consecutive quarters, and its incremental cost-to-income ratio for the first half was 55%.

What it means for investors

Two other details stand out. S&P Global Ratings gave the bank its first international rating, an investment-grade ‘BBB-‘ for the long term. And MD and CEO V. Vaidyanathan said return on assets is now “within touching distance of 1%”. For a lender that has spent years absorbing the cost of building a retail franchise, that is the milestone the market has been waiting for.

The flip side is that a quarter-on-quarter fall in profit and a cost-to-income ratio near 70% leave little room for slippage. If you want a framework for reading a bank’s quarterly numbers beyond the headline profit, our guide on how to analyse quarterly results of a company walks through it step by step.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not investment advice. Please consult a SEBI-registered adviser before making any investment decision.