Mumbai, Apr 27 (IANS): India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank Friday posted an increase of 31 percent for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs.1,901.76 crore due to a decline in bad debts.

The net profit of the bank was Rs.1,452 crore during the like period of the previous financial year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The total income stood at Rs.11,403 crore during the quarter under review - up 30 percent against Rs.8,797 crore during the like period of 2010-11.

The bank has posted an increase of 25.5 percent in net profit for the year ended March 31, 2012, at Rs.6,465.3 crore against Rs.5,151.4 crore during an year ago period.

The total income during the period under review stood at Rs.41,045 crore, up 26 percent against Rs. 32,621.95 crore in 2010-11.

"Our growth momentum has picked up quite well across the segments of retail and corporate," said Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer, ICICI Bank.

"We are seeing stable asset quality. Retail assets continue to remain stable," she added.

The current and savings account ratio of the bank is maintained at 43.5 percent as on March 31, 2012, while the net non-performing asset ratio decreased to 0.62 percent from 0.94 percent year on year.

The advances of the bank increased by 17 percent year-on-year to Rs.2,53,728 crore as on March 31, 2012 from Rs.216,366 crore a year ago.

The bank has also recommended a dividend of Rs.100 per preference share on 350 preference shares of the face value of Rs.1 crore each and a dividend of Rs.16.50 per equity share of face value of Rs.10 each.

ICICI Bank had 2,752 branches across the country as on March 31, 2012. It has also increased its ATM network to 9,006 units as on March 31, 2012 as compared to 6,104 on March 31, 2011.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange the shares of ICICI Bank were 3.01 percent up to trade at Rs.866.90.