Bandhan Bank Limited (BANDHANBNK) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Bundan Bank limited Q3 FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Kundra, Head of Investor Relations Team. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Father. Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome. It's a great pleasure to have you with us as we review Bandhan Bank's business and financial performance for the quarter and nine months ended December 2014. We truly appreciate your time, your continuous support, and your participation on today's call. I hope the year has begun on a positive note for you and your families, and I wish all of you a healthy, successful, and fulfilled in 2026. Joining me today are Mr. Patshapratin Chhendutta, MD and CEO, Mr. Ratan Kumar Kesh, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Rajinder Kumar Babbar, Executive Director and Chief Business Officer, Mr. Rajinder Mankhi, Chief Financial Officer, and I am Vikas Moutra, Head of Investor Relations, along with our senior management team. We will take you through the key business trends, achievements, and challenges during the quarter, followed by a Q&A session after the management remark. With that, I invite our NBN CEO, Mr. Pathakateen Sengupta, to share his perspective on the quarter's performance. Over to you, sir. Thank you, Vikash. Good evening, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of Bunsen Bank, I am pleased to extend a very warm welcome to all participants on our earnings call for the third quarter of FY26. I hope you and your families had a wonderful start to the new year, and I wish you continued good health, prosperity, and success in the months ahead. This quarter was marked by strengthening across our core businesses. In line with our strategic focus on quality growth, we saw steady momentum in advances, improvement in the EB book, or more popularly known as the microfinance book, and further strengthening of the secured book. On the legislative side, our continued push towards generality resulted in stronger retail mobilization and a calibrated reduction in high-cost bulk deposits. Margin improved sequentially as the cost of funds eased and asset quality trends moved in the right direction with lower stress formation and reduced NPS. While these are positive outcomes, we remain sharply focused on accelerating cost-up and improving asset quality farther. Before I move into the financial and operational performances of the quarter, let me begin by highlighting a few key initiatives we undertook during this period. This initiative reflects our continued focus on enhancing our products and services through innovation and strengthening our ability to serve customers more efficiently. During the quarter, aligned with our digital transformation agenda, we made strong progress to enhance the abundant corporate internet banking platform with a better user experience, stronger security, and access to partners like Builddesk and Capture. We also implemented real-time transaction monitoring to proactively identify and mitigate risks of our clients. In merchant acquiring and payment, we continue to scale our capability. We onboarded ResultPay as a payment gateway partner, supporting key sectors such as government, utilities, and education. Our POS terminals now integrate directly with customers' ERP systems, improving efficiency and reducing manual reconciliation. Additionally, we launched our in-app collection solution, enabling mobile-based payments, acceptance without physical devices. Overall, these updates strengthen our digital ecosystem and position us well to support the evolving needs of our corporate and institutional clients. Let me now walk you through some of the key initiatives undertaken during the quarter to strengthen our control framework and enhance our product offerings within the EEB Group loan portfolio. Starting with control enhancement, we focus on improving transparency, accuracy, and customer communication. First, we introduce real-time SMS acknowledgments for CAD collections made during group meetings through our tablet-based systems. This ensures customers receive immediate confirmation of their payments, reinforcing trust and transparency. Second, we launched a real-time digital dashboard for our operations executives. This enables more effective monitoring and reconciliation of transactions conducted by our relationship officers during group meetings, significantly improving timeliness and accuracy. First, we initiated pilot testing of Bluetooth-enabled portable printers and now also completely integrated tablets with printers to issue instant printed receipts at the point of collection. This further enhances clarity of communication and builds greater confidence among customers. On the product enhancement side, our efforts were centered on offering greater flexibility and convenience to our customers. We introduced 18-month and 36-month tenure options in group loans, providing customers with more choice to match their repayment schedules to their cash flow cycle. Additionally, we have expanded repayment flexibility by offering bi-weekly and monthly repayment frequency options, reducing repayment stress, and enabling better financial planning for customers. Overall, these initiatives underscore our continued commitment to strengthening control, emulating customer experience, and expanding flexibility across our product suite. Let me now take a moment to highlight two significant developments during the quarter that had a notable impact on our financials. The first relates to the portfolio sale of NPAs and return-off accounts to ARC, And the second pertains to the impact of the newly notified labor force. As part of our ongoing effort to strengthen the balance sheet, we executed the sale of NPAs and return-off accounts of unsecured EB and ABD portfolios, mostly unsecured, to ARCs during the quarter. We sold 3,707 quotes of write-off portfolio also, which was realized at a valuation of roughly 9%. Out of the total security receipt issued for this portfolio, our share stood at 62%. On the cash side, we received which is 126 floors, and this inflow has been recorded under other income. In addition to this, we also sold 3,165 floors of NPAs unsecured loan in the EB and ABD book at a valuation of around 18%. Our share of SRs for this pool was approximately 47%. The transaction generated would be $303 crores of cash for the bank, and this has been used to offset our provisions under the provisions line item in the P&L. Together, these actions reflect our continued focus on strengthening the balance sheet while ensuring discipline resolution of stress assets. The second key development relates to the new labor course. On 21st November, 2025, the government of India formally notified of four labor courses. The bank has undertaken a detailed assessment of their impact, wherever applicable, particularly with respect to the revised definition of wages. As a result of this assessment, we have created an incremental provision of Rs. 120 crore towards gratuity during the quarter. This provision, which primarily arises from the change in wage definition, has been accounted for under employed costs in the P&L. I now move to the performance of Bundan Bank for Q3-FI26 and 9-month-FI26. The quarter demonstrated several underlying strengths across our core businesses. Our advances continue to show healthy momentum, with underlying growth remaining strong even after accounting for the recent MTSL. The EB portfolio has stabilized, reversing the earlier trend of degrowth, and our secured hoop continues to strengthen, improving the secured mix further. On the liability side, deposit granularity improved meaningfully supported by strong retail deposit mobilization, even as we deliberately spared down high-cost bulk deposits to improve the quality of our liability profile. Margins also showed an encouraging upward turn, aided by a sustained reduction in the cost of funds and improving deposit mix. Asset quality frames were constructing with lower slippages, QO, YQ, better early stage indicators, and improved NPAs following the NRC sales. In terms of areas, we are sharpening further. Casa growth remains soft industry-wide, but we are intensifying our efforts to strengthen customer engagement and enhance product propositions. Operating expenses remain well-managed and broadly in line with our guidance, despite certain regulatory-driven one-offs. And while slippages have improved, we continue to remain focused on further spend-lending employees, reducing incremental stress, and moving steadily towards our medium-term credit cost aspirations. Overall, the quarter demonstrates improving fundamentals and continued balance sheet resilience. While my colleague and CFO, Mr. Rajiv Mansi, will provide a comprehensive overview of the financials, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few performance indicators from the third quarter of FY26. As on 31st December 2025, our growth advances stood at about 1.45 lakh pros, reflecting healthy growth of 10% YOY. On the liability side, deposits reached to be 1.57 lakh pros, growing faster than advances on Y-on-Y basis, a reflection of our strategic focus on maintaining a balanced and sustainable contract. Retail term deposits continued the strong momentum, growing by over 36% YOY, underscoring the increasing trust of our customers and the strength of branch network. CASA now stands at 27% of total deposits, and the overall retail mix, including CASA and retail term deposits, includes farther to 72%, signaling continued strengthening of deposit granularity and stability. Aligned with our diversification agenda, our Secured Book at 57% of overall advances continue to gain share within the overall portfolio, supported by steady growth across secured products. This shift reinforces the improving risk profile and balance within our advances mix. Our need for the quarter at 5.9% remained healthy, showing sequential improvement as a

benefit of lower cost of funds flow through.

For the nine-month period as well, need remained largely stable at 6%. Trade costs showed a small improvement sequentially, and we remain committed to bringing them down further through this year. Growth and net NPR ratios improved significantly at 3.3% and 1% respectively, while our TPR, including technical write-offs, improved to 84.3%. For Q3 financial year 26, our net total income stood at 3,379 crore, while operating profit was 1,445 crore. The bank reported a tax of rupees 206 score for the quarter. This is almost 89% higher than what we have reported for the Q2 FY26 ending September. For nine months financial year 26, ROA and ROE stood at 0.5% and 4% respectively. Our capital position remains robust, including 9-month FY26 profit. The capital adequacy ratio stands at 17.8% and Tier 1 capital at 17%, providing ample headroom to support future growth. We also continue to expand our distribution footprint, taking the branch network to 1,831 branches, with 20 new branches added during the quarter, and conversion of 57 housing finance centers into full-fledged banking branches. This expansion enhances our reach and strengthens our ability to serve customers more efficiently. To conclude, this has been a quarter of steady progress and strengthening fundamentals for Bandhan Bank. We continue to execute with discipline across our strategic priorities, driving quality growth, depending on our retail franchising, enhancing our digital capabilities, and reinforcing our risk and control framework. While there is more work ahead, the trajectory is encouraging, and we remain fully committed to building a stronger, more resilient, and more diversified bank. I would like to thank our customers, employees, shareholders, and all stakeholders for their continued trust and support. Thank you.

Sir, should we open the floor for questions?

Yes. No, with this, I would just like I'd like to invite our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Rajiv Manthi, to take you through the detailed financial performance of the quarter.

Thank you, Mr. Tengupta, and welcome again, everyone, to the earnings call. We now move on to the business performance for the quarter. I'll walk you through the financial highlights and provide an overview of how we have performed. Let me first start with the advances. Where the trends for this quarter reaffirm the progress we are making in reshipping the balance sheet? As of 21st December 25, the gross advances stood at Rs 1.45 lakh growth, representing 10% year-on-year growth, and on sequential basis, the growth was healthy at about 4%. Importantly, if we adjust for the NPS days of Rs 3,165 growth during the quarter, the underlying advances growth would have been higher at 12% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter, It's indicating sustained business momentum beneath the reported numbers. The EEB book, which is our microfinance portfolio, stood at rupees 50,076 growth, showing a 11% year-on-year and 3% sequential decline. However, when we normalize for the NPSA to ART of Rs.2759 growth, which pertain to this segment within the overall NPSA, undertaken during the quarter, the portfolio would have recorded a growth of 2% on a sequential basis quarter-on-quarter. Operational trends on the ground, including improved collections, supported by increased demand, and the strength and field controls, reinforce the confidence that degrowth space in EEB book is behind and the portfolio stabilizing with the more constructive strategies going ahead. Our non-EEB portfolio continues to demonstrate strong broad-based growth at 25% year-on-year, driven by sustained momentum across both retail assets and wholesale banking. Which now accounts for nearly, overall the non-EV portfolio accounts for nearly 65% of the total advances, up from 63% in the previous quarter and 58% a year ago. Within this, retail assets grew by 57% year on year, led by secured segments such as PBC, auto loans, and gold loans. Full-cell banking also performed very well, growing 32% year-on-year. Excluding ABG and PTC, the growth is even higher at 43% year-on-year. Supported by deeper client engagement and effective execution. These trends validate the strength of our diversification strategy. Our housing-volved portfolio also grew at above 10%. On portfolio diversification, we further strengthen our secured loan book across wholesale banking, housing, and retail assets. The secured book grew 27% year-on-year and is now accounting for about 57% of the total advances. The shift towards secured lending remains a key strategic leader for enhancing asset quality and improving the long-term risk profile of the bank. In terms of segmental composition, the portfolio is now more balanced. The EB group lending accounts for 22% of total advances, S-BAL is at 12%, wholesale banking at 31%, housing at 23%, and retail loans at nearly 10%. This mix reflects conscious de-concentration efforts and is calibrated de-balancing towards more secured, stable, and diversified asset pools. Let me now move on to our deposit performance. As of December 31st, 2025, our total deposits stood at which is 1.57 lakh growth compared to which is 1.41 lakh growth a year ago, reflecting a growth of 11% year-on-year. Importantly, deposit growth on year-on-year basis continues to run ahead of our advances growth, consistent with our focus on funding stability and balance On a sequential basis, the deposits moderated marginally by about 1%, but this was largely due to the planned runoff in the bulk deposits. Bulk deposits declined by 6% quarter-on-quarter, and their share in total deposits reduced further to about 28% compared with 29% in the previous quarter and 31% a year earlier. This steady decline is intentional and reflects our ongoing commitment to reduce the reliance on high-cost, less stable funding sources and improve the durability of our liability base. Our efforts to deepen a granular retail-driven deposit profile remains on track. Retail deposits, which comprise both CASA and retail term deposits, grew by 17% year-on-year. Within this, retail Term Deposits maintained strong momentum, going 36% year-on-year, which underscores the continued trust and engagement of our customer's enterprise. CASA Deposits stood at Rs. 42,730 crore, reflecting a 4% year-on-year decline. This was primarily as a result of the savings rate reductions undertaken in Q1 and subsequently in Q2 and Q3. The lower rates led to an outflow of certain high-value rate-sensitive balances that were earlier costing upwards of 6%. It is important to note that pressure on CASA is not unique to us. The industry as a whole has been witnessing similar challenges, with most banks reporting softness and CASA ratios due to the interest rate environment and the shifting consumer behavior. The positive development, however, is that core granular selling deposits continue to bring strong traction. These balances are more stable, less sensitive to pricing, and at lower cost, and their growth indicates that the underlying strength of our Kata franchise remains intact. As customer engagement deepens, branches get leveraged, and as granular deposit strategy continues to build traction, we expect the quality of our liability base to improve further over the next few products. Moving to collections and asset quality, we have seen improvement across various indicators. Starting with collections, our overall collection efficiency, excluding NPAs, improved to 98.1% in the month of December compared to 98.7% in September 25. Within the EV portfolio, full-quarter selection efficiency for QC stood at 98.2%, and for the month of December, specifically, it was 98%, up from 97.5% in September. These improvements reflect the sustained recovery efforts on the ground. Additional details are available on slide 20 of our investor tech. On slippages, the improvement is visible and broad-based, the bank-wide gross slippages declined to Rs. 1,314 crores in QCFI 26 from Rs. 1,590 crores in the preceding quarter. The largest contribution to this improvement came from the EEV segment, where slippages moderated to Rs. 942 crores compared to Rs. 1,118 crores in the previous quarter. Recoveries and upgrades at the bank level amounted to Rs.361 crore, slightly higher than Rs.332 crore in the previous quarter. Better recoveries coupled with lower shortages indicate stabilizing portfolio behavior and better resolution throughput. We are also seeing encouraging signs in the early 2020 market. In the EEV portfolio, the combined 0 to 90 DPD pools, which is SMA0, SMA1, and SMA2, reduced to Rs. 2310 crores, or 4.6% of EEV advances, compared to Rs. 2497 crores, or 4.8% in the prior quarter. The most meaningful improvement came in the SMA0 bucket, which declined from Rs. 1582 crores to Rs. 1328 crores. This movement indicates easing forward flows and supports our expectations of further improvement over the coming quarters. We have given detailed disclosures in slide 21 of our investor desk. In addition, during the quarter, we completed the sale of Rs 3,155 flows of NDAs to ARC, primarily from the EB and the ABT portfolios. Following this sale, our GNPA ratio improved sharply to 3.3%, and net NPA declined to 1%. In fact, it's 0.99%, the net NPA ratio. Credit cost for the quarter moderated slightly to 3.3%, compared with 3.4% in Q2F526. A point worth highlighting is around provisioning coverage, While the reported CCR stands at 70.8%, when we include the provisions that we have kept against the security receipts as part of the ERC sales, the effective CCR comes to 74.2%, which remains broadly unchanged on a sequential basis. This reflects the stable provisioning position even after the NPS sales. If we include the technical write-offs, our CCR including the write-off stands at 84.3%. Let me now move on to the earnings performance for the quarter. The net interest income for QCFI26 came in at Rs.2688. While this reflects the year-on-year moderation, but on a sequential basis, it improved by 3.8%. Net interest margin for the quarter improved to 5.9% compared with 5.8% in Q2, supported by nearly a 20 basis point reduction in the cost of deposit. This improvement more than obtains a natural use impression arising from the rising share of secured lending in the portfolio, a conscious shift that strengthens the risk profile and enhances earnings quality over time. Looking at the non-interest income, the reported number shows a 38% year-round year decline, but a 27% improvement quarter-and-quarter. However, there were certain one-offs in the last year during the same period. For normalizing Even for the same, the core non-interest income grew 32% year-on-year. Importantly, the income from third-party distribution grew a strong 35%, year-on-year highlighting deeper branch level penetration and better cost-sell productivity. We also saw healthy improvement in processing fees, supported by the improved disbursements in the yearly portfolios. Operating expenses for the quarter were Rs.1,934 crores, rising 6% sequentially. This increase was largely due to the Rs.120 crores provision for gratuity following the implementation of the new labor costs. On a year-on-year basis, OPEX growth was contained at 2%, held by the absence of one-time EFOR-related costs that were present in the base quarter in the last year. Despite the regulatory-driven one-off, our object-to-arbit assets ratio remained well-managed at 3.9%, only marginally higher than 3.8% in Q2. This reflects continued discipline and cost control. As a result, the operating profit for the quarter was at 1,245 crores, and the net profit was Rs. 206 crores compared to Rs. 426 crores a year ago and Rs. 112 crores in Q2, FI26. The profitability ratio for Q3, which is return on assets was at 0.4% and return on equity was at 3%, reflecting the combined impact of the one-off items and cost of reducing NGAs taken during the quarter. Briefly talking about the 9-month performance, NIF for the 9 months for FY26 student rupees 8034 pros, supported by the continued expansion of the secure book and stable margin performance. Operating profit for the 9-month period stood at Rs. 4,424, reflecting resilience in core earnings. NIM, OPEXO assets, and credit costs for 9-month FI26 were at 6%, 3.8%, and 3.4% respectively. The net profit for the 9-month was Rs. 689, resulting in annualized ROE of 0.5% and ROE of 4%. Taken together, these results reflect steady progress on the bank's strategic priorities to improve in business growth, sustainable product makes, and better asset quality, the action that transcends the franchise for the long term. Thank you for your time and listening patiently to our update on behalf of the entire management We truly appreciate your continued interest and support. With that, you would now be happy to take your question.

Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then 1 on their touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then 2. Participants are requested to use handpits while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Jayamundra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi.

Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I wanted to check if you can specify the EEB slippages during the quarter and the recovery if any in the movement of MTA or EEB only.

Okay, so during the quarter EEB slippages has been through the tune of 942 crores. So, there has been a significant improvement. Q1, it was 1,089 crores. Q2, it was 1,118 crores. So, almost 1,30 crores down from what we have seen in the earlier quarter.

And the recovery rate were 130 crores, 1,1,3. So, the net slip rate was 8,29 crores for EV. Sure. And sir, is there any restatement of SMA0 of last quarter because it looks like there is some restatement. Is it because of ARC sale or there is something else also?

So, SMA0 is largely unaffected with the ARC sale. So, there has been also a good improvement. You are talking of the EB segment?

Yes, sir, the EB is SMA0, which is last time 4.9% for third quarter presentation, seems to have changed a little bit. Yeah, so, Jay, overall, there is no change in the

SMA0, but, yeah, on a state-wide, there were some little changes. So, the SMA0 has declined from Q2. It was 1582 in the SMA0.

We're going to the previous investor back to now, and I think as Vikash clarified, maybe for some of the states there is some big classification, but the overall S&E 0 number is the same. Sure. And sir, now, last three quarters, MFI slipkits has been declining, and this quarter, the investments have also picked up on 202, whatever basis both. So, what is your assessment? Other banks have seen a material improvement in the reported asset quality. What would be your assessment in the near term or maybe one or two quarters on EB asset quality?

So, we are finding a lot of unique positive trends in the EB segment. Our disbursements are going up. As has been presented by Rajiv, we have seen that few and few also disbursements have gone up. And number two is that the seepages are also coming down. So going forward, we are expecting that this will further improve because when we look at the vintage book and the delinquency book in terms of the vintage, we find that almost last one year, the seepages has been very, very low. And so if that trend continues, then we will have a much, much better and healthier book in this segment in the coming quarters. We have also got a better 99.6% regular collection in the last few months.

So, we have seen our green shoots in the last few months. So, X bucket collection efficiency is now 99.6%, right? Is that humanity? Yes. Yes.

November and December 1, we witnessed 99.6. That's X bucket. X bucket. And it has substantially improved some of the work.

Okay. And, sir, any comments on the credit cost? How should we build the credit cost? Right now, which is a bit elevated, we have done the ERP transaction also, and have kept little impact on the PCR, but how should one look at credit cost being made?

So, while the guidance is difficult to give at this stage, but we can see that it could substantially improve. Even in Q4, also, we are expecting an improvement because the loan loss provisioning would be anyone we are expecting much lower than what we have done this time. So, with the pain that what EB is showing and the performance of the business is like in Wholesale banking, we have almost very low amount of free pages and the retail also of the If we are able to contain, I can say that the credit cost will be improved. Our guidance factor is at the end of FY27. We are still hopeful that we will probably be achieving it by the end of FY27.

Yeah, as you said, we have a guidance from 1.6 to 1.7% as at the end of EFRA 27. So, we are moving steadily towards that particular guidance. Right. So, 1.6 to 1.7 for overall and around 2.5% for EV, right? That was the guidance given. That is broadly more or less impact, right? That's right. And last. 1.6 to 1.7 overall and 2.5 to 3% for EV. Okay, last question that if I may ask is the treatment of this ARC transaction. So, just to, just to, I mean, my understanding is, correct me if I am wrong, that you have two branches. One is written off portfolio, 3700. You sold it for 330, 332. And you got, you got, let's say, 62%, you invested 62% in the account portfolio. So, around 130 crore you got in cash, right? And that is, because it was written off, it has moved to other income. Yeah, 126 crores. Correct. Okay. And the transaction fee where you had not provided, which was not written off, you received 300 crores. And what happens to that 300 crores? 300 crores?

You have just put three courses just cashed with what we have received and it has actually brought down our NPA figures. So it was just appropriated against outstanding. So it has brought down our NPA figures. And the balance amount is in the SR, where the ERC has taken a higher share at 60% and 45% of that.

Yeah, just to specify, I think 3,165 crores of NPA sales. We got a value of 18% that amounts to a deal value of 570 crores. We got the cash from the ART of 303 crores, which represents 53.25%, and our share, London Bank share was 256 crores, which is the 46.75%.

Correct.

Thank you, and all you need to be.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of M.D. Mahesh from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Hello. Hi. Hi, Maish. Hello.

Yes, sir. Please proceed with your question. The line from M.D. Mahesh has been dropped from the queue. We'll move on to the next question. The next question comes from the line of Piran Engineer from CLFA. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, sir. Congress on the quarter. Just before getting to my questions, can you just once again explain the AIC details? You got 570 crores from the sale, which is 18%. Then the cash out of it, you said it was

303 crores, but then you said Bandhan Bank share was 256.

So, maybe I'll explain the appearance earlier. So, there were two pools that they had sold. One was the NPA pool, which amounted to 3,165 crores. The value we got was 18%, which is 5,70 crores. The cash or component of that was 3,03 crores, representing around 53%, paid by the ERP. And London Bank's investment was 2,66 crores. 2,66, represented around 43%. Oh, so the 256-close is in the SR that you got? Yeah, 256-close is in the SR. That's correct. And similarly, we had the second pool, which is a write-off pool, of about 3,707-close, which was sold to Phoenix. And for that, we got a deal value of about 9%. The deal value was 332-close. The cash that we received was 126-close, representing around 38%. And our investment, the Bundan Bank's investment was 62% amounting to rupees to 0.6%.

Got it. Got it. Okay, that explains this AHC bit. Just focusing on mortgages,

you know, for the last few quarters, now growth has been slowing down, NPAs are going up, you know, what are we, you know, what are we doing to sort of reverse this?

Yeah, so the first thing what we have done and we are gradually on the process of simulation is this earlier, if you can look at it, it was onboarding, underwriting, and also the operations were done by the same person. So this was especially in the affordable segment, the risk was increasing. So we have changed the system. Now it is a completely different set of people during the onboarding And underwriting is independent, and then finally the operations who just look into the interesting before the disbursement of the loan. So this one effect, I would say that it will definitely improve the quality factors of the housing finance segment. This is number one. Number two is that we are also streamlining our underwriting process, and soon we will be coming with the new business rules, and it will be more or less rules driven rather than doing a lot many, I would say, The third is that the dependency on the personal, I would say, hearing for that is also getting, I would say, that now we are more on the structured way of information, trying to get the information rather than on personal data or personal hearing or more on the basis of their other salary income backed by bank statements, backed by other, I would say, So that will definitely improve our quality and the fourth is our continuous effort in increasing our share in the salary segment. So if you can look at it as present, we are almost 56% in the salary pool, housing, 56%. Yeah, we are at 56% in the housing pool in the salary segment. So these are some of the steps. Second, eventually, you see a lot many of these NPAs are from the legacy books. No doubt for the day. And the third and I think one most important thing what we have done is that earlier, although we have acquired the growth finance, we have not actually made a true merger in the sense that they were allowed to maintain their own process, profiteers, and keep their identity in the way what they have been doing before. So, that major change has already taken place. As you have seen, the 50,000 of the housing finance centers have now been completely converted into branches. This is one. And number three, the other centers also, we are gradually making them a banking unit. So, they can do the normal banking activities and lot of churning among the staff between the Grofinance earlier staff and our new Vandam Bank employee staff are also taking place. So, all these steps, we are quite hopeful that it will improve the quality of the advances in future.

All these steps, like, moving from a different process to now a different process, that would impact growth, but NTAs have just been going up every quarter.

So, that is what I'm saying. This NTA, mainly because of the underwriting issues also. So, earlier the same person was doing the onboarding and underwriting. So, that has now been changed. So, obviously, once the new independent underwriters comes and assess the team, the quality improves.

Okay, okay, fair enough. The second question is on margins. How do we, like, foresee margins for the next four quarters?

Difficult to comment at this stage, but definitely I can say some of the shoots are there. You see the IRC sale that we are made, and for which in order to maintain our TRC, We have to provision coverage ratio, the PCR. We have to do a lot, much of provision, additional provision, which is almost, net to net is almost 428 crores that has come during this quarter. We don't expect such amount of large provisions definitely, so that we expect definitely our property will improve. Number two is the cost of funds as we have been linked. So, steadily, we are coming, the cost of funds, as you can see, that it is steadily declining. And in the coming quarter, what Rajiv has said, that most of the big deposits would be measured the whole time, big deposits will be matured and they will be placed in the new interest rate bucket. So, that will improve my cost of funds further and consequentially the need. So, the need today is at 5.9%, which is definitely one of the best in the industry, but we hope that we will continue to maintain at this rate, so 6% on the list. So, there are some shortages, so if you just look at it, our operating expenses and also our other income for the day, one is the scope definitely to increase our other income where we are focusing. Affecting expenses, we have been continuing more or less at the same pace what we have been doing earlier. A little bit definitely cost has enhanced in the field of technology which is required. But on the seepages cost, for each we have to make a large amount of provisions. Now the EV segment is definitely giving some green shoots, which will have to be so seepages will come down. We also expect seepages reducing from the housing loan segments. The other two segments are quite okay. Okay. So, considering this, right, the number of guidance cannot be given, but yes, extremely hopeful that the coming quarter will be good for the bank.

And I think just to add supplementary what Mr. Senggutha mentioned, on the net interest margin, look, last quarter, we did see the impact of the repo rate reduction, which impacted and reduced our net interest margin. We have seen the trajectory reverse from 5.8% to 5.9% in this quarter, and that is a result of some of the cost of funds coming down. So, we expect this cost of funds improvement to continue over the next two to three quarters, and the NIMS target rate will perform. So, there are about four components. One is the cost of funds where we are confident, because of the term deposits coming for renewal in Q4 as well as in Q1 and Q2, that we should see anywhere between a 35 basis points to a 53 basis points improvement in the NIMS because of this. At the same time, as you are aware, there has been a further report rate reduction in December, which will come into effect on 1st of January, which will create an adverse impact of about 11 basis points on our net interest margin, because the report rate affects about 45% of our advanced portfolio. Apart from these two, as the slippages we expect to come down, there should be lesser interest reversals, which will also benefit the margin. And fourthly, as we expect some for the granularity of the deposits and caster improvement, that's also data improvement. So, all of these factors will lead to the net interest margin definitely improving from the current level. We are confident that in Q2, we saw a bottom of the MIMS, at least for this financial year, and therefore, some further improvement should be expected from these levels. Okay, okay. And this is my last question is, what are the yields in our commercial banking and retail loan book? And have we hiked yields in microfinance like some of our competitors?

So I think for our wholesale banking book, it's just a shade below 9% as the gross yields.

And overall, blended for the secured book will be somewhere around 10%, right? Across the three portfolios. The total yield of advances is 13.50%.

Yeah, I think that the secured book is lower. And the EV, who continues to be around 22% amount of profit, we have

not increased the rates as of now

for the EV, we are evaluating at this point.

Got it, got it. Okay, that's it from my end. Thank you and wish you all the best.

Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Pankaj Agarwal from Prudence Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for giving me an opportunity. Before asking questions, I would like to bring your attention to some figures. Post-IPO 2018, the bank has made provisions of more than 36,000 crore in provisions and contingencies, and against that, the bank has recovered around 7,000-8,000-odd crores.

And credit cost has been elevated post-IPO more than 3%. So, my other, like, you know, friends have asked the question about

NPAs and all, and you have answered categorically. But I want to be looking because shareholders have been continuous paying, and they have lost around 60% of their net worth, right? So, how do, my only question is, like, you know, how the bank is going to, like, you know, have robust risk management system and getting back to

its original right, you know, to getting profitability so that shareholders could be rewarded. Thank you.

Right. So, you see, definitely there has been a deep in the value of the shareholder's funds, because since there are two, three events, we have to just look into it. So, we evaluated some microfinance institutions, and when we went for the ICO, our main assets were microfinance. And these microfinance We have seen what has happened in Corona. Almost 20% of our group were as microfinance went into space. So, this was a learning lesson for the bank and then we gradually thought that yes, okay, we have to work an universal bank and cannot put all our eggs in one basket and rather distribute it in a balanced way between the unsecured and the secured segment. Now this transition is going on that you need to appreciate and while making these transitions on the one hand, we need to provide for the slippages that has happened mostly in the microfinance segment which apart from this corona related risk there are other risks like the political you know at some of the states we have witnessed and there are other climatic risks also but it is a common factor so far. So our corrective states have been taken as We are now distributing our assets and securely growing our assets. So microfinance segment at one point in this bank was more than 80% has now come significantly to around 35%. And the unsecured book is also 43%. So that is one risk progress measure we have to take. We have taken already. Number two is that current transition phase, we have already indicated to our investors right from when I took over the chart, that there will be a difference in profit and profitability, because as we go for a more future, definitely the returns will be less. But nevertheless, this is wanted for a universal bank to create confidence among the depositors and to create confidence among the investors. Now, I can say that we have seen the bottom of the nadir in the month of September when our profits went to a deep of 112 growth. I can say that now we're going on forward with this balanced book of positions along with the lot many risk mitigation measures that we have taken. I can share that we are now having a wholesale banking group share of almost 31%. And in this segment, let me tell you that almost 85% of the total corporate credit are A and above. And 25% are AA and above for that year. So this is the quality we are bringing in the advance. The return will take some time. Again, I'm telling you that we are also concerned about the shareholder. So, I would request you to just wait for a little bit more time. Definitely, Bundan Bank, we are all Thank you very much, sir.

And we expect that legacy or not legacy, because, you know, people move once their time has come or they got a better opportunity elsewhere.

But I think the NPA has been a constant tapping from where the water is leaking around the banking system. And I think the banking, the RBI and the bank itself are very cognizant of that, and they will take care of, because you know, these NPAs, every month, every quarter, there is a fixed repayment. I hope this will be contained. Thank you very much, sir. Absolutely, absolutely, and that is why you see, we, because we were piled up with so many of legacy NPAs that we took a decision to take a changing of the team, and we have done the ERC sales. It has definitely, I can say that it has definitely hinted to our profit. Today, if I have not done with the NPA sales, and have kept the NPA at around 5%, I probably could have given you a much better profit figure, but we have decided the other way, changing the book, and maintaining the Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address There's questions from all the parties in the conference. Please restrict your questions to two each for participants. If you have any other call-up questions, please rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Nipen Agarwal from Motila Lodhwal. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. So, a couple of questions. One is around the collection efficiency. If you look at, like, we have reported margin of improvement across all these geographies, barring West Bengal, but it is, like, a very minor uptick. And if I correlate it to the SMA1, then that number has gone up sharply in West Bengal, or from to 1.4%. So, how do you look at the situation there? What percentage of the MFI work now is in Bengal and any procedural tightening or underwriting like a kind of changes we are doing in anticipation to the upcoming Bengal elections. If you can give some color around all of this.

So, first of all, let me address the underwriting changes. So, we are making a completely passive shift in our underwriting process. The first is that we are moving from a localized understanding to a centralized understanding. We are putting business rules into our system so that hardly any discussion or discrimination is there in giving the right borrowers the right amount and the right product for the year. So, and number, this will soon come. Also, we are revamping the entire thing of this family tree, double predates, and all these things. All these things are taken care of. A lot of changes are going to happen in the underwriting segment in this EB process for this. So, and the second part of your question, you are saying that. I think your question was on the collection efficiency in the SMA 1.

Yes, I think, yeah, collection efficiency we have seen an improvement. Yes, thank you.

So, collection efficiency we have seen improvement everywhere, like I said in the month of November December we dropped 99.6 from regular, on the West Bengal sign in particular, like I said we have started in the last quarter of fall as well, policy repayment, and we have five colleges in the month of October, However, this led to an SMA 0 increase to the regular OTR coming down from 99.5 to 99.1 for the month of October, but again when there are no holidays in the month on

November-December, a regular holidays in the month at 99.5 plus. So that blip is only from primarily for the number of holidays we had in the month of October. Otherwise, you will see our SMA 1, 2 have been contained overall, and the only blip is coming from SMA 1 in terms of the opportunity.

So I would just reiterate, so we have also explained earlier also that even one year back, we were not raising any demand on holidays. So this was in violation of the RBS IRAC norms, accounting principles. So that we have amended. And now even if it is a holiday, we raise demands. But there are no persons in the field to collect that amount. So, obviously, it falls into the bucket of SMA 0, and if something is residing in SMA 0, falls into the bucket of SMA 1. If you can look in the current month also, so from tomorrow, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, then we continue as four-day holidays. In these four days, demands will be raised, but people will not be available to collect the funds. So, obviously, my DPT book will go up, but I can say that West Bengal is one of the best steps in terms of performance. We also classify our all views, the microfinance branches into four categories. And only two branches are qualified for, comes under the, under the comma, for that year. The rest all are doing well. It is one of the, still I have said, West Bengal, Assam, Dihar, these are some of the states which are doing extremely good in terms of collection. And we have seen in Dihar, during the election period also, my collection efficiency was almost at the same level.

Also, Nitin, one more point to add is that since we have done the ARC sales, the denominator has also come down. Therefore, if you look at it from an amount perspective, I think the SMA 1 and 2 are at similar levels, but the percentages could be looking like going up slightly more.

Okay. Okay. Sure. And West Bengal now is what proportion of total MFI?

Okay.

So, the other question that I have is around the employee intensity. So, if I look like since March 24, the MFI portfolio has come down by 20%. But our total employee count remains around a very narrow range. So, should it not come down in context to how the MFI business I do agree.

What you have said is also what you have made an internal deliberation and also, yes, that it's okay. But the question is that you see the, it has come down today, but we are still optimistic that it will go up. So, suddenly, we can't take hard measures just showing things with them, asking that employees to just leave for them because it will create also a very, you know, that this particular statement that people often hover around the various NFIs and the various NBSs who are in this microfinance lending. So, for them, it would not matter that much, but it would matter a lot for us. So, that is one thing. Number two, we have already done for rationalization by putting not many of our business, I would say what we call as ROs, who are just responsible for booking business. We have placed them in the collection zone. So, we are strengthening our collection and done some bit of restructuring of our employees. In addition, if I would just supplement the answer, see, overall the book style, which I include the NPA write-off, which we also keep on collecting and the numbers keep on adding up to our financials, that number is, you know, larger than what it was maybe a year back also. We are still collecting on NPAs, and the rate of revenues are going higher each quarter. So overall, if I read the book, right from 0 to NPA plus up to right-of, that number has been growing.

So if you consider all of that, and in terms of we are very closely tracking our employees' collectivities, the efficiency and collectivities are tracked, and that has

shown an upside in the last two quarters, rather than compared to what it is. Because overall, the diversions are coming up now, in the last quarter, as well as our collecting efficiencies are also growing.

I think within the overall headcount, we have also made sure that we invest in talent for the secure business, which is going very far. So, while we will see efficiencies in the EV segment, we have actually seen an increase in the secure to make sure that the accelerated growth happens there. Got it, got it. And the last question is…

I'm going to interrupt. Nathim, sir, may we request you to return to the queue for any follow-up questions, please? Sure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of M.B. Mahesh from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, I just had one question. This pertains to the exits that some of you seem on the ground at your bank. You've seen a few exits the vigilance levels and the audit executives.

If you could just kind of give us a slide as to what happened here. Let me tell you there is no other issue. So definitely as you know that he has still been very closely worked by the regulator. So there is no other issue, nothing for that year. And it was absolutely because of his family residing in Bombay and also he has got some other more, I would say, compulsions for that year. So, he came up very clearly to me and stated that in normal circumstances, actually, he would not have opted for his resignation, but actual circumstances in his personal life has almost forced him to take this decision. So, there is no issue, no issue with the management, no issue with the regulator, no, I can say that there is nothing as such that has come positive. So, just because of his personal requirements, he has put this.

And so just wondering, is the team then settled now or is there a risk of any further exits at your end?

Because we had one with the housing site. As of housing, though, it was, as I told you, that it was more or less a given decision. So that was, that is completely different. As of now, we have no indication of any senior executives meeting us. So, more or less the team is stable, but as you know that, the market is open to all. So, anyone getting a very good opportunity and positive, we have to live up with it. It happens in all banks. Perfect.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Anish Rai from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hello, sir. Evening on. So, just one question. So, did we make any additional provisions for the NPA scale we have? So, the reason I ask that question is to generally add our provisions to our simple ratio over the...

Obviously, so we have to maintain a certain level of TCR. This is one. So, our TCR along with this ASAR where we have invested is around 24%. So, if we have to maintain this as per our IRAS norm, we require a much lesser provision. Our substandard book, we have provided almost 52%, whereas the IRAC norm says 25% maximum for unsecured, 15% for the secure. Our D1 book also, we have provided almost 78%, and D2 onwards, almost 100%. So, our provisions are much more accelerated than what we have required. In addition, we have provided for the standard assets at 1% of our EB book. So, definitely this ARC sale has almost to the close of 528 cores of provisions were required.

I think that's the... I think just to supplement with the ARC sale, the PCR would have come somewhere between 50% to 65%. And therefore, we have taken additional provisions to make sure that we maintain the PCR at a healthy level and do not have a higher open risk, right? So, our net NPAs are at 1%, this is even below the last quarter, 1.4%. Okay, so, proper related question, so, in the NPA sale, so, what would have been the coverage for this NPA which was sold? I mean, can you disclose that earlier, before the date? Yeah, this was 100% provided, what we have sold, but as a 100% provided portfolio gets The PCM will naturally come down, right? And therefore, we have to do it.

The provisions book also gets depleted. The provisions book also gets depleted, so that's fine. Understood. Thanks, sir.

Your next question comes from the line of Anand Dama from MK Global. Please go ahead.

Sir, thank you for the opportunity. The labor code impact that we have given is about 120 crores, mainly towards gratuity. Is there any more provision to be made towards lease encashment or pension or provision fund which possibly would come fourth quarter? And if yes, if you can quantify that.

Yeah, I can answer that, Aguirre. So, we have assessed that lease encashment is already structured in a way which does not require a further provision to be done. Therefore, based on the current law that came through, I think the attitude provision was the key one that we had to assess. And based on the actual valuation, we've taken a 120-year-old impact on the financial. Yes, you know, whilst the law has come, I think there are certain rules which have yet to be announced by various states, etc. So, we are awaiting those to come through. As they come through, we'll do a further assessment of any further items which could be having implications. And then, accordingly, we'll come back to the investors.

Okay. Any ballpark impact that you feel that could be there?

As of now, we can't quantify because the rules are not out, guys, so we don't know.

And, sir, the recently we saw in some of the banks there was RBI supervision and there they had qualification related to their PSL classification. Many years back, even Pallan had similar incidents. How about this year, whether the RBI supervision has been completed, are there any qualifications or we have got a clean report on the PSL front?

So, this year's RGS supervision hasn't completed. We don't have any, I would say, any remarkable qualification because we are very prudent in classifying the PSL and taking steps. So, nothing material, I would say, has been pointed out.

As of now, there will be no divergence on the PSL.

Sure, so that's great. And, sir, if you can just give the great cause guidance for F526 and F527.

So, the guidance that we have given is for the exit of S-527, where we have said that the credit cost is expected to reach around 1.6 to 1.7%. So, that is the target for the last quarter of S-527. We are not providing any guidance for the financial year 26 or financial year 27.

Okay, that's very helpful, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Ankit Behani from Nomura. Please, go ahead.

Yeah, am I audible? Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. So, I wanted to ask you mentioned a few levers that would lead to market improvement going ahead. So, are you factoring in given that the mid-stream that we have, the growth has been largely led by your lower-yielding wholesale book, has that been considered, and should we see MFI growing in line with the overall loan book growth?

So, now we have come to a very balanced position, I can say. So, this, in fact, we were thinking to achieve at the end of FI27, but in fact, we have pre-achieved it, we have accelerated. The mix is now absolutely balanced, and we would prefer that we would continue with the same ratio. So, this much I can say for that, so there will be a growth. So, in fact, in this quarter also, if you take away the ARC cell effect, the EV book has grown by 1,100 growth. So, it is almost 2% your growth, and that trend is continuing, and this quarter also you will see a growth. So, today, this balance we want to maintain, 35%, almost 40% will be unsecured and 60% will be secured. This is what the balance we are planning.

So, I think just to supplement, right now, the non-EED book growth is around 25% and the EED as of now is a negative 10%. Of course, as Ndisa mentioned, we are dialing up the growth in EED, but this will take a bit of transition time so that we are able to reach a higher level of growth. But we do expect and we are expecting the sequential improvement every quarter. So much, the proportion of 80 will come down, right, for at least next few quarters.

It's on the same line. So it will not be very substantial. So it will not be very substantial.

The pace of cleaning and security will be lower than what we have seen so far. Okay, sure. And the second question is on the deposit growth front. So, how do we see the landscape evolving now? Should we see a deposit growth pickup for you in coming quarters? And what would be a load growth guidance against that?

So, let me tell you one thing. If you look at our balance sheet, we have been quite an outlier in giving interest rates in respect of our deposits on the banking segment. In many of the packets, we were almost 100, 150.5. So, that was giving a negative impact to our balance sheet. And the profit and loss, and especially when we were making a transition towards the most secure books. So, the moderation was necessary and we are moderating the rest. My first plus point is that my retained deposits are going. At one point of time, it was a year back, it was 67% and now it is 72%, so this is the first thing. Number two is that we are able to cut down the whole deposit, which were very costly. The bulk deposits, which was around 45, 47, 48% even a year ago, I can say, is now at 38%. A substantial reduction has been made. The third is that my car is growing. Of course, not a very quantum term for the day, but definitely average car this quarter also has been growing for the day. My only worry is now in the car segment, definitely where we have lost 4,000 crores during the quarter, but that is also, again, because of a high interest rate, a lot of institutions used to keep savings bank deposits with us for the day. With the moderation of the rest, we have lost those chunky deposits of around 18,000 crores. But a large extent of deal has been disclosed by my retail core deposit for the DA, and that is to be around 14,000. So while still, maybe we are depositing Sata by what we have been there a year back, we were around 31%. Our effort is that we should soon reach that number, 31%. We are working on that. That's why not many products we are bringing. We are also revamping our retail internet banking. I hope you will like it if you are a customer of our bank. It will be very seamless. We have already done it for our corporate internal banking customers. We have appreciated the space that we have taken. A lot many other initiatives also digital is the digital field and also in the other journey, customer journey field, we are taking it. I can tell you that today, even we have done a lot of customer security for the DA. We are receiving appreciation letters from various state governments, central governments, including the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding continuing our new account, regarding taking absolute protection for the cyber security. So, not much of many customer competences we are trying to do in for this year so that London can be applying savings and account for our customers, and we are working on it. Maybe one, two quarters needed, but definitely we will be achieving that. That's our target.

Also, I think just to reiterate our overall guidance that we have given is a 15-17% KG on advances and deposit load to be higher than that just over the next 2-3 years. So, from the current level, we will be working towards meeting those guidance levels.

Okay, sure.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next follow-up question comes from the line of Jayamundra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, in the opening, we want to mention that you have done some product tweaks. Now, the collection has been bi-monthly and even monthly. And if I heard correctly, you have elongated the product repayment lifetime also. So, can you see the elaborator and having the option of monthly, bimonthly, weekly, would it, I mean, is it specific to certain states or within the same state people may have different choice and could it not create further confusion or how do you think about it?

So, we have now started from this month itself, and we started doing the pilot from the calendar month, fortnightly and monthly repayments called easy loans, particularly for this month. Individual loans of, as well, we always had monthly repayments. Because of holiday and flexible repayments given to all our customers, instead of let's move towards fortnightly like many of the other finances have.

There are the advantages to move towards fortnightly, simply because the customer also likes

flexible repayment mechanism at their end, and secondly, also it takes care of the holiday repayments. So, these are the two things we started from the month of January, and this will also keep us a good strategy to have the part, and it's an efficiency going forward.

So, for customer, there is no longer any weekly repayment, right? Is it fortnightly or monthly?

So, it could be weekly as well. The choice is given to the customer to continue with the weekly, and in a homogenous group, we also look at moving customers from a weekly to fortnightly in the time of renewal. So, slowly over a period of time, the steps will move from weekly to fortnightly for many of our customers. This whole transition of moment may take more than a year also, but the journey has started now, and with weekly, homogenous group will typically move from a weekly to fortnightly in the time of renewal.

Okay, and what about the elongation,

we have now introduced many more, I would say, digital collection systems. So, first of all, the QR code has been given to the customers, number one. Number two, we have introduced also the hard-beam payment system through which the customers can also pay. So, we have introduced the why more collection system, why these things are getting packed also, but there are several measures. Second, why means the customers did not come to the banking unit also and it is required for my people also going to the customer. So even a fast call will actually ensure recovery also for the day. So based on that and also to increase the productivity of our people because now what is happening, every person goes to visit a particular customer for the day, he is taking a lot of his executive time, which was not required if the collection efficiency is there and now today, We have already started this project from January onwards, but definitely it will take a very long time because it will take a very long time. Remember, onward, all loans were in the weekly payment. So, unless those are repaid or failed, it will take. But over a period of time, definitely, it will increase the productivity and it will also increase the quality.

Yeah, and in addition to that, Rajinder Bhavdar here, at least later to the previous question there, there was a question, there is a 20% reduction in rehab, manpower reduction is 10%. So, we are overall looking at that. For the EDP, the minimum staff has to handle a particular number of accounts. Now, in our case, he's receiving a weekly BFC. So, in another NBFC, basically, this is a monthly BFC. So, definitely, our staff is moving four times into market. And that is the ultimate purpose, how we can increase the productivity, reduce the cost. So, we are slowly, slowly shifting to the 15 days. So, automatically, the number of accounts handled by this staff will be scattered in a normal manner. And during this transition also, we will make sure that the focus on having central meeting discipline continues. Yes, there is nothing to change about that.

Even with the QR4 digital payments coming in, the central meeting discipline remains the core of the business. Because even if the payment is made, we invited all our customers to come in, and the group discipline continues.

Then, anything on the elongation of the tenures? I mean, in the Uti-Yuma searching, I heard something on that topic.

Yeah, so we had tenures of 12 and 24 months. Now, we are waiting here in flexible tenures extensions of 18, and it goes up to 36 months as well for the highest ticket size. But typically, we move from a 12 to an 18 month, and it's all this is that we're not putting much pressure on the customer. So, suppose we shift from a weekly basis to a post-nitly basis, automatically the repayment schedule is doubled. That may put a pressure. So, that's why we have elongated little bit 18 months will not put much pressure on the customer in making the repayments.

Right. So, now 12 months become 18 months and 24 months and the option of the customer can become 36 months.

12 months, 18 months, 24, 36 months.

So, hopefully it will reduce to the, I mean, it will help the, smoothen the, at least the repayment capability. Okay. And lastly, there are news reports on, news reports of West Bengal getting into elections, some immigrants getting thrown, or I mean, getting a bit of disturbance in terms of...

I can give one simple statistic. So, the districts where these have been reported, our collection efficiency has not been affected. So, you are still getting more than 99% collection in those areas on regular laws. And we keep our clothes on daily basis. So, it does not get affected in the news. We also come here and read in the newspaper, but no way.

Great, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

I'd like to thank all the investors and everyone who joined on the call. Thank you for continuing to report your trust to the bank. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of Bundan Bank Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.