Shares of IDFC Bank were trading lower in morning trade on Wednesday after reports that the lender, which scrapped a deal to merge with Shriram City Union, is exploring a similar deal with the Mumbai-based Capital First.

Capital First has more than 5 million customers in retail and small and medium enterprises.

IDFC Bank was trading 1.04 per cent down at Rs 62.10 at around 10.30 am (IST), while Capital First was up 0.50 per cent at Rs 785.50 at around the same time.

Although the matter has not been taken to board level yet, proposals from investment bankers have reached some top executives of the two companies, according to the report.

"IDFC and Capital First are exploring merger options and are in initial stage of merging the two," said a source familiar with the development.

"It will help Capital First to enter into banking while IDFC Bank will get a retail franchise." IDFC and Capital First did not respond to ET's email query. While a merger would make sense for the companies, valuations could be a hurdle, said one of the persons cited above.

The merger, if goes through, will create a financial company with a market value of at least Rs 29,080.57 crore that will have businesses across all segments.

In July 2017, IDFC and Shriram group had entered into an agreement to merge but the two had differences over valuations