A higher other income (driven by one-off trading gains) enabled Axis Bank to meet Street expectations for the quarter gone by. The trends on provisioning remained divergent for both the banks as Axis Bank provided aggressively and doubled its provisions on a sequential basis, thereby restricting profit growth. On the other hand, HDFC Bank, which is far ahead on the asset quality front, saw a reduction in bad loans. Hence, it saw lower provisioning for the quarter, which aided its bottom-line growth. Asset quality issues remain Even as Axis Bank management pointed out that it has made excess provisions of Rs 115 crore (total Rs 509 crore) taking cognizance of the uncertain macro, the bank's asset quality hasn't improved. For the September 2012 quarter, its gross and net NPAs increased 2-4 basis points to 1.1% and 0.33%, respectively compared to the June 2012 quarter. This is the highest in the last three quarters and in contrast to the trend seen in HDFC Bank.