7% Interest On Savings Account Makes This Investment Very Attractive

There is no scheduled commercial bank in the country that currently offers 7 per cent interest on its savings bank accounts. In fact, even the fixed deposits of government owned banks or the larger private sector banks like ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank do not offer 7 per cent interest. IDFC First Bank offers an interest rate of 7 per cent on SB account, where the interest is credited every quarter, taking the yields even higher. It's also important to note that unlike fixed deposits, the interest earned on Fds is exempted from tax to the tune of Rs 10,000.

How IDFC First Bank SB Account compares?

	Maximum FD Interest Rate
HDFC Bank	5.50%
ICICI Bank	4.35%
SBI	5.40%
PNB	5.30%
IDFC First SB Account	7%;

IDFC First offers a nearly 40 per cent higher interest rate in comparison to most of the other bigger banks in the country.

Is it safe to invest in IDFC First?

It's always difficult to predict the future, especially in the case of a bank. All we can do is go by facts. For the quarter ended June 30, 2020, IDFC First saw CASA Deposits positing a strong growth, rising 145% YoY to Rs. 23,491 crore as on June 30, 2020 as compared to Rs. 9,594 crore as on June 30, 2019.

The bank's net profits were placed at Rs 94 crores for the quarter ending June 30, 2020. The Gross NPA of the Bank reduced to 1.99% as of June 30, 2020, as compared to 2.60% as of March 31, 2020.

The NPAs are much lower than all of the government banks, though government banks are considered safe because of intervention.

A look at the above parameters reveals that at the moment there is no cause for concern. The deposits too are AAA rated.

However, as we all know in the case of Yes Bank, things got difficult with its lending practices and the government, RBI and SBI had to intervene to salvage the situation.

IDFC First is much better placed though. We do not see any significant risk at the moment, though it's difficult to predict the future.