Axis Bank expects to complete the acquisition of Citibank’s consumer business in India by the first or second quarter of the next calendar year.

The bank in March had announced that it was acquiring the consumer business of Citi India, including its credit card portfolio, for Rs 12,325 crore.

The private sector lender will also acquire Citi India’s retail banking, wealth management and consumer loans business.

Subsequently, the Competition Commission had approved the transaction.

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO of Axis Bank, also said that the bank did not intend to raise any funds until it had wrapped up the deal to acquire the main chunks of Citibank’s business in India.

The Axis Bank chief said its mutual fund arm is co-operating with the regulator Sebi on the charges of alleged irregularities by the fund.

Commenting on the transactions with Max, which had invited action from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), he said that they were part of two separate deals.

Commenting on recent speculation of attrition in Citi’s credit card business, Chaudhry said the bank had factored some attrition in the pricing of the deal and the present trend was in line with its expectation.

Earlier this month, the IRDAI had imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on the bank for the violation of the regulator’s direction, misrepresentation to obtain approval and contravention of share transfer directions. It pertained to the deal between Axis Bank andMax Life Insurance Company.

MLIC had sought the regulator’s approval for Axis Bank along with group firms — AxisCapital and Axis Securities — proposing to acquire 12 percent of the stake held by MaxFinancial Services Ltd (MFSL) in the insurer.

The IRDAI had said that the promoters of the insurer — MFSL and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company(MFSI) — had a series of purchase and sale transactions with the private sector bank.

The regulator said these promoters were engaged in the transfer of shares to AxisBank at a price that was substantially lower than the fair market value.

Chaudhry said there were two different sets of transactions and that what it did was "as per the book’’.