Private sector Axis Bank is targeting to increase the retail portfolio of its lending shortly, a top bank official said here Monday.

"We want to increase retail portfolio to 25 percent of the total lending in near future," Axis Bank executive director S.K. Chakrabarti told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session organised by Merchants' Chamber of Commerce.

At present, the total retail portfolio of the bank is 21 percent. The total retail asset size is Rs.19,000 crore.

Chakrabarti said though the bank is trying to increase retail portfolio it would not get into rate war in any of the retail lending segments.

Talking about auto loan, he said it constitutes 17 percent of the retail lending and it wants to expand it but with checks and balances to maintain asset quality.