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Informist, Saturday, May 2, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Axis Bank Ltd. Saturday launched its first robotic smart locker branch here, offering secure and technology-led locker access to its customers. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Chaudhry said that the private-sector bank plans to open more such branches across India after assessing the workings and outcome of the New Delhi branch. M. Nagaraju, secretary in the Department of Financial Services, was also present at the launch event. 

 

"I expect more such branches to come up after this. Through this, we want to ensure less intervention between customers and their lockers," Chaudhry said, adding that this is probably the first such initiative in the Indian banking sector. However, Chaudhry did not give a target of how much such branches are expected going ahead. 

 

Axis Bank is heavily investing in the artificial intelligence segment and is also pushing its workforce to upgrade skills accordingly, he said. Following its March quarter results, declared on Apr. 25, the lender had said that AI is expected to drive meaningful bottom-line impact over the next 18–24 months. However, it cautioned that the benefits are yet to fully reflect in headcount reduction, with current gains largely seen in productivity and process efficiencies. 

 

Talking on the sidelines about the impact of the West Asia war on the bank, Chaudhry said "it has added to the risk profile of banks". "We have to be watchful of how the war and the surge in crude oil prices impact customers on both the retail and wholesale side," he said. However, he added that the impact of the crisis has been minimal so far, and no impact is visible on the lender's loan book as of now. Axis Bank's net advances grew 18.5% to INR 12.34 trillion as of Mar. 31, against the 16.1% growth seen across scheduled commercial banks.

 

The private-sector lender posted a profit after tax of INR 70.71 billion in the March quarter, marginally lower on year but growing nearly 9% on quarter. The bank's provisions shot up to INR 35.22 billion in the March quarter, which includes a one-time provision of standard assets of INR 20.01 billion. On Thursday, shares of the bank ended over 2% lower at INR 1,268.30 on the National Stock Exchanges.  End

 

Reported by Pratiksha

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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