(Bloomberg) -- Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. posted a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit after it set aside fewer provisions for bad loans than in the previous three months.

Net income stood at 20.3 billion rupees ($270 million) in the September quarter, compared with 21.8 billion rupees a year earlier, according to a statement Tuesday. That beat the average 18.6 billion rupees estimate from 13 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. 

The bank set aside 4.24 billion rupees for provisions in the September quarter, up from 3.3 billion rupees a year earlier, but down from 7.04 billion rupees from the previous three months. The lender’s gross bad loan ratio narrowed to 3.19% from 3.56% in the three months earlier. 

Kotak Mahindra Bank, founded by the world’s richest banker, Uday Kotak, is bolstering a relatively safe retail lending book after slowing its overall credit growth over the past few years when India was gripped by a shadow lending crisis and then the global pandemic. 

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