Ideally, they should not be able to because like you rightly said, it is more commoditised. In fact, you look at the reason why did HDFC merge into HDFC Bank, because they realised that the margins are going to get squeezed and if they do not have a low-cost deposit franchise which supports the margin squeeze, that will become tougher.So, many of these housing finance companies sustain higher margins to develop financing, loan against property, etc, which are higher margin, but then also carry higher risk.
