Bank of Maharashtra (MAHABANK) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Earning Conference Call for Q3-FY2526 results of Bank of Maharashtra. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the list only most, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should we need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your telephone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Margaret Misha. Thank you, and over to you, Margaret. Good evening, everyone. We have the following members of Managements with us today. Ms. Nidhutukherna, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Rohit Rishi, and Mr. Prabhak Kiran, Executive Director, along with three of General Managers and General Managers of the Bank. I will now hand over the call to the management, Ms. Nidhutukherna, Managing Director and CEO, to walk us through the quarter. Thank you all, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, and thank you all for joining this ConCon. We have finalized our results today, and I would say this has been yet another quarter where we have consistently, and I would say for last couple of years, One of the best quarters in terms of profitability also numbers I will very quickly share. But before that, let me share that the guidance that we had kept in the beginning of the year. We are the first two quarters and now this Q3, we are well above our guidance number on all the parameters. We have been achieving our guidance. I will quickly share the total business against our guidance of 15%. Growth year on year 17.24 and we reached 5,95,000 crores. Total deposits have increased by 15.3% against the guidance number of 14%. Advances has increased at 19%. Sorry, advances against the guidance. Guidance of 17% has increased by 20% here on here. Then CASA share has been maintained at above 50%. We are doing 50% this year also, this quarter also. Also, our RAM to corporate share, which was 5040 plus minus 2, we have done 5037 shares. RAM growth against the guidance of 20%, we are exceeding that number also. Within the retail, the verticals that are growing in the bank, home loans have grown year on year at 28%, vehicle loans 54%, gold loans 56%. Retail overall has grown at 36% year-on-year. Our stress in the loan book is very well managed. We have improved on this metrics also. Overall stress number stands at 3.35%, within which SMA 1 plus 2 is 1.69%, which is an 18-bit improvement. In terms of above 5 crores, the stress

stands at 0.19%. The gross NPA and the NPA, the

numbers are also very well managed. Our gross NPA in terms of percentage has got reduced from 1.72 in the last quarter to 1.60 this quarter. Remember, the net MTA has improved from 0.18 in the last quarter to 0.15% this quarter, and we are well within our guidance, that is to maintain our gross MTA less than 2%, and net MTA at less than 0.25%. The ROA, the ROE and NIN numbers against the guidance of 3.75, we have achieved 3.87. ROA guidance 1.75, we have achieved 1.86. ROE guidance to maintain ROE above 20%, we have fully achieved in this quarter 23.79%. Our cost to income is to be maintained below 40. Against that guidance, we have done 37.19%. Yield on advances stands at 8.95%. We have experienced also reduction in our costs. And cost of fund stands at 4.10%. Cost of deposit stands at 4.47%. Overall, the profitability has been good in this quarter. We have been able to clock our highest severed quarterly profit of 1,179 crores, and the nine-month net profit has exceeded 5,000 crores, stands at 5,005 crores. We are maintaining a LDCRAR against the guidance of keeping the number above 15%. We have a CRAR of 17.06%. CET1 is maintained at 13.10%. In this nine months, we have also seen OSX issuance by the government, and we are today a NPS compliance bank with UI holding standing at 73.6%. Ratings during the year, beyond one international rating from Fritsch, we had approached S&P Global and they assigned us a little bit minus table in September 2025. Our long term rating is AA plus table from ICRA and CARE. Stop term rating is A1 plus from Christian. Looking at this good profitability, we have also looked at considering payouts of in terms of interim dividend. I am happy to share that 10% interim dividend

has been approved in our board today. Thank you. I will take a pause and I think we will take more questions

from your side, the detailed presentation I am sure is made available to you and you would have gone through those and we would like to take queries from you and respond to those. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and run on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We will take our first question from the line of Ashok Ashwira from ASKON.

Please go ahead.

Thank you. Compliments to you, sir, Lidu, sir, and the entire team, Roy, sir, and the top management of the Bank of Maharashtra and the other staff, for a very, very excellent quarter, results was, if you see any of your right, you said, one of the highest quarterly profits, taking the bank, in fact, now the side of the bank is also increasing, you are now going to Thank you sir. Thank you. Hello, am I audible? Yes, you are. Yes, sir, Komeda, please, please, sir. Yeah. So, just one or two, a couple of observations and a few points. While in this quarter also we have grown, this quarter we have grown well on the credit front as well as the even deposit also, but overall if you look at the nine months, Thank you. Thank you very much.

So, the deposit guidance that we have kept is 14%, it will be maintained. I would like to bring to this notice that if you see the deposit growth, it is like the credit growth, but within the deposit, the composition that has grown in the bank is the low cost component. So, CAFSA, even in the last quarter, if you ask me, 12% was the total deposit growth, within which CAFSA grew by 14%. In this quarter, the total deposit has grown by 15%, but within which CAFSA has grown by 16% year on year. Now, the focus is very, very clear to raise low cost component of the deposit. Very consciously, this is our strategy for last couple of quarters to let high cost bulk deposits leave our bank. If we don't need that kind of funding and we have tried to look at other alternative sources of raising resources. We have gone for almost 14,000, 15,000 floors of refinance transactions when at appropriate time during the year. Carving some of our portfolio, we have been able to raise resources at a blended rate of 6, 6,5 percent, which have been quite beneficial, and this is coming with no overhang for CRR and SLR requirements. So, it was a conscious strategy on our part. In fact, last in this quarter, we have seen the bulk deposits for the first time. We have been grown year on year by 7% in the last quarter. And this is overall the DRI component also from total deposit, the bulk, the DRI because as I asked, 13, we have slowly and gradually let it come down and expand. It should be at 5.08. So, it was a conscious strategy and that is also an impact on the CD ratio going up. What we see is that it is not, the bulk ICOS is a function of rate of interest that we will decide and we can easily get that business to enter our system, but we are more conscious on the profitability aspect of that and at the right moment, we will keep looking at raising more of the low cost. The priority will also be towards retail deposits, which are more stable, don't experience volatility. There we keep offering some special schemes, offering some special rates to get that kind of a deposit in our bank. So this is how we are managing. CD ratio is also an outcome of that, but at the appropriate time, we will be taking calls during this quarter, And a lot of things do happen in the Q4. We are all aware. That's how the industry experiences. And I will have no element of doubt that 14% that objective is in mind will not be achieved.

Yes, sir. Quite well taken, sir. In fact, you are known for your CASA, which is, of course, a low-cost deposit, and it is maintained still in this typical time also at almost about a 50 percent. Though it has gone down little bit from arch of 53 percent to 50 percent, but this is commendable even to maintain this also. Sir, having said this, sir, now coming to this, our overall profitability, the overall profitability of the bank as such is great. But if you look at the treasury side, I think in this quarter we have suffered the profit on the investment on the loss of our 180 crore as compared to the profit of 99 crore in the last quarter. And even if you look at the segment while treasury profit also there have also gone down to 106 crore, against 433 crore in the last quarter. So, there is definitely some pressure on this. So, going forward, for the remaining one quarter of this financial year, how do we see ourselves going and making at least offsetting this some of the treasury losses which have taken place, or rather coming into the profit, as to the overall profit of the bank will make it more profitable.

So, before I start looking at this, let me just give you one more number. Thasta percentage has actually improved in this quarter by 26 days, year on year. So, that again is a substantial improvement. In terms of treasury income and the number that you are seeing, there is one of 290 crores of Marakta Grameen Bank and Reserve Function Grameen Bank enalgamation, Laidman is a question which has resulted in this 290 crores of one time dip, and if you exclude that, the treasury also will be seeing quarterly profits of around 115 crores.

112 crores. Yeah. That's good Sir. So, it means in the next quarter, this 290, if you remove and add to the whatever the residence profit is there, then that will add it further to the bank soldering price and it will be, accordingly can be seen and analyzed, Same agenda so the women and all the other are going to be left side. Please. And I will just click on the front. And let's just continue with the end of the process. Lastly, I will just go ahead and remove the NLIs on the back to the end of the day So,

if you look at the portfolio and the growth, the main In the elements in the retail segment, the individual, in the retail advances, agriculture and investment advances, if I talk of retail, home loans are experiencing a year-on-year growth of 28%, retail as a portfolio where we have focused on big-ticket business with our existing clients has grown at 54%, gold on itself is growing at 56%, and we have also entered into coal So, this is how, but let me take a look. I tell you, we are, wherever we are going simultaneously, our corporate book also, with the corporate growth of year and year, 19%, I think it's a very healthy, where the industry may be a single digit growth, and we are expanding into areas where new opportunities are visible, new profitable opportunities are visible, we have done lot of green financing, renewable energy projects, we have done data centers, And the like EV segments. So, lot of this kind of funding has been done in the bank and portfolio has gone up. So, contribution will keep coming from all the sectors and we will participate in any kind of opportunity that is visible to us, which is the only underlying thing in the corporate segment, whether we understand the risk, whether we are able to manage it well, and if it is a profitable product,

So, the last question, sir, on the CPJS. Our CPJS this quarter has gotten a little higher than 700 and almost 750 crores as compared to range of 650 to 700 crores. So, is it, is there any one-off listing of 100 to 100 to 100 crores or it is a common, normal thing in the quarter which is going to be followed?

So, Asaibhaz, if you look at the data, our advance book is increasing, in terms of percentage, it is 1.2%, the same was the figures last year and even one year back we were around decline only. So, there is nothing alarming, very small, in the usual course of business, that's what I would like to say. And just to supplement your observations on treasury income, at least I have to already Thank you. The core operations are, they are improving, they are contributing more towards profitability in the current community.

Great, sir. My compliments to you once again, and all the best to you all. I'll come back again if the time permits, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Mahrook Adhijaniya from Nuwama. Please go ahead.

Hello, congratulations. So, I just wanted one clarification first, that it's fair to say that you had absolutely no impact from the new labor codes. Is that my first question?

So, we have done our assessment. It is a very small amount, around 33 lakhs is a figure, with keeping into account our contractual employees, our regular employees, and that is a number which is very insignificant and leaves no discussion is what the sense we are having. Thank you very much.

It includes the Gratuity Contribution and everything?

Yes, yes.

Okay. And so my second question is on the LDR only. So the LDR has shot up and that's true of the system. It's not unique only to Lankof Maharashtra, right? And previously, RDI has always gotten worried when the LDR touches 80. Now, the system LDR is 82%. So, do you foresee any regulator option or soft match from the regulator given that the system LDR is rising so much and it's already above the comfort level of 80% that has been historically the case?

So, the NDR, in my case, we are keeping a guidance of maintaining around 83, 84 in the present circumstances. And we feel that is the best prescription in terms of able to generate our profitability. So, I also had mentioned two previous queries wherein very consciously we have been looking at other alternative sources including infrastructure bonds and which has also contributed in some way to see that 1-2-bip more of CT ratio LDR in case of Bank of Manasar. But I think there is no major challenge, there is no prescription from the regulator, you all know that. So far, no soft nudge also. But we are mindful of this and we will keep looking at raising core business, stable business that comes from branches rather than it is very easy for us, which is a matter of function of interest rate that I would offer on a bulk deposit and let the We are calling it as project 321, wherein 321 branches selected very scientifically at the PIN code level. We have decided to be open in 18 months. While I speak today, 116 of those branches have already been made functional. And they are doing business. So these branches are going to get us the core business of individual deposits in their jurisdiction in that branch. And that's how we will be focusing, keep continuing to focus on the core business, core deposits, stable deposits where we see no fluctuations, major, no volatility in our business.

Thank you, sir. And my last question is on rates. So, what is your home loan rate right now for your prime or your best customers, and what would be your average yield on gold loans?

So, we are keeping very competitive home loan interest rates, and the idea is with a big enabler of April to maintain such a high costa, we are able to offer the best interest rates in the market. We have a chart 7.1 for our loan borrowers, but then this rate is again not available to all. One has to qualify in terms of their credit scores. So, there is a graded slap. The best interest rate is available for civil score 800 and above, and we have a slap system depending on what credit score I enjoy. I will be priced according to that. We have also been mindful of the quality. Somebody, some mention was there for Slippet. So, it is not only pricing the product for with CIT scores, we have also done underwriting. So, there is no, the underwriting benchmark does not permit in the bank, no funding below CIT score of 681 and below, Sibyl score. We have benchmarked our underwriting to TransUnion Tribal, and 681 and below, there is no underwriting in any schemes in the bank. So, we are going, we are mindful of the quality, the loan book that we are forming in this book time. We are also aware of that part, and profitability, of course, we are aware of.

So, after the average yield on gold loans?

So, by Gold Oms, we have actually made three options because with the tweak which has come or the relaxation, dispensation which came from the regulator on this segment, they have permitted small segment agriculture Gold Oms, small segment up to 10 lakh MSME Gold Oms, And the non-retail, non-party retail gold loans. So, I have three products where I will, if it's agriculture classified, I will charge the lowest rate. But we are getting a yield of almost 9% around in our gold portfolio. Thank you. Also, when I mentioned, yes, I agree also. And we are also having the cold ending partnership of sizable book. Today, I think we are the leading bank in the industry having NBFC cold ending tie-ups and more than one NBFC we are doing that arrangement with, where using seamless digital API and reverse API integration. We are doing that business, and we have almost now 5,500 close of business in that segment where I am getting a good pricing. I also don't incur any expenses with face keeping of the old jewelry. There is no insurance cost to me. I am getting a good rate. So this co-lending also is a, and the portfolio is behaving very well. We intend to further increase this co-lending partnerships with some good-rated gold NGFCs who will be willing to join hands with us.

And what is the co-lending rate? Rate on co-lending portfolio?

So, that is subject to our discussion, negotiation, but system knows that the private gold loan NDSP is charged very high rates. We are not into that game. We are mindful of the quality also. Although it's a self-liquidating asset, but there is a ceiling in our cold ending arrangement beyond which we will not permit underwriting. So, there is a strict business rule engine. Prove it. This entire underwriting will flow. So, whatever gold NDFC branches throughout the country will do business. The portfolio is shared to the bank. We will do our LTV checks digitally. We will do the screening and then priority check is done and we will underwrite this portfolio the very next. So, the technology that supports this co-lending arrangement is working seamlessly. There is a reconciliation on a daily basis that is happening. And as I said, lots of issues in doing gold-owned business that we encounter when we do it in our branches versus in this co-lending arrangement, the front-ending is done by the NDSM. I am saving a lot of costs on those fronts also. So, but rates are negotiated one-on-one. I would like to disclose to.

Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure management is able to answer queries from all participants, Kylie, let us take your questions to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions. We'll take our next question from the line of Rohit Pleadarshu from Mithil Analytics. Please go ahead.

Yeah, I thank you for the opportunity. I hope I am audible.

Yes, please go ahead. Yeah, so congratulations on good set of numbers to the management. And my question is on the yield front. If you look at our yield of advances,

it has been reducing from 9.27% last December to 8.92% in December.

So, could you please explain the key reasons behind this decline? Is it mainly due to the loan exchange or, you know, reducing the ending rate or anything else?

And what are, what will be our yield guidance for the new product?

So, the yield on advances is standing at 8.95%, but you would have seen that there has been 125% rate cut from the regulator, and we have, like everybody, every bank has mandated to pass on the rate cut without any time lapse. We have to manually pass this rate cut benefit to our portfolio, which is linked to the repo rate. So around 40%, 42% of portfolio is linked to the repo, which gets this benefit passed on immediately. But the deposit pricing, which is always coming with a lag, and with this rate cut happening, the overall yield will see an impact. But we have been very mindful when this rate cut high till was dropping. Aware of that, almost 30 to 35 dips of NCLR raise we had done in a 10 to 12 month period before this rate cut began in February 2025. And we have seen that this portfolio, still maybe one quarter of portfolio which will be remaining for getting repriced in that MCLR portfolio, around 65%, that is our loan book composing or linked to the MCLR. But again, with this rate cut, clients, the good rated borrowers have been approaching and they have been getting options and we have to be aligning ourselves, remaining in the market and doing business. So some good rated borrowers also on the MCLR site have been approaching banks with concessions and when the competition is looking at those and considering them, then we would also not sometimes like to lose the business. So, all these are elements of headwinds in this thing. But ultimately, with rate cuts, the ancillary benefit that bank is getting is that with new rate cuts, we will see new opportunities coming from the bank for raising their loan book all over. New home buys are happening, the interest rate cut, the tax rate, the GST cut. All this is doing is enabling, empowering people to go and spend. And when this is happening in the ecosystem, ultimately the funding opportunities for all the players in the ecosystem is only going up. So that's how we are also going to get benefit out of that. The yield may little bit soften, but overall our volumes that we are doing higher, ultimately it will become a profitable proposition for the bank, though not only immediate when the rate cut benefit has to be passed, immediately there will be a lag where my deposits will get repriced. For that intervening period, yes, but as I explained, ultimately bank also stands to benefit.

Understood, sir. Understood.

We have a guidance from NIM. We are targeting to maintain at about 3.75. And we will maintain it. That is good, sir. That is good to hear.

And then secondly, how focus are we on including the MSNE loan book? And what kind of ease can we expect from here? And since I believe MSME usually gives higher ease. So, do you see this helping our overall ease improvement going forward? So, as I said, we are into wherever we see profitable opportunities and where we are comfortable to build our exposure zone. So, with MSME also, we are looking at this segment also very seriously. What we have done is low-ticket MSMEs, the journeys have been created using technology, and the end-to-end process is digitalized where we don't wish to have too much of engagement in our branch for availing or disbursing these MSMEs, small-ticket-sized loans. So, we rely more on digital journeys where we will set our own business rules and the underwriting quality will also be managed well. MSME, we will keep trying to grow. We have been growing double digits, high double digits, I would say, in 15, 16. Lately, in the last quarter, Thank you for having me. I'd like to thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you. We have another question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm dość, I'm just so proud of it. So, this is a rebalancing that was happening. Now, we have improved drastically. When we look at September growth in Agree MSME year earlier, what is December growth, you will see much improvement has coming. And very consciously, we have been underwriting big-ticket Agree and MSME advances and onboarding them. When these set of clients are coming, focus has moved from production in finance to investment credit in the Agree segment. And that's how we have done lot of rice mill, dal mill, we have done warehouses, cold storages, and we have seen that while the portfolio has grown, we have got some ancillary business also, we have got lot of primary and collateral securities. So we have grown the portfolio in a very secured manner. And of course, yes, you are right to say that the pricing, if you are able to service the client's requirements expeditiously, this is the portfolio which is able to get you good rates also. And there's not much of competition here. So we deliver our products fast through a quick business and are able to command some premium in pricing also. If the customer is happily paying to the bank, 20-25 bps don't matter if their requirements are expeditiously seen Thank you, sir. That is good to hear, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity and I wish all the best to the next week. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

This is the next question from the line of Jai, Prakash, Munar from IG.

Yeah, hi, good evening, sir, and congratulations on a ready number. Sir, my first question is, during the quarter, RDI had opened the window for

We will just come back to you on this.

We are aware of this dispensation and we don't have We have a very big portfolio around here, but we will just come back to you if there is any major thing. Total amount for the MSME for the compensation,

whatever the RBI has come, it is around 5000 crores, sir.

Okay.

And it is already, we have started the process and it is undergoing.

Sure. So, sir, you have a loan book of around 50,000 crores in MSME, right? So, out of 50,000 crores of MSME, around 5,000 crores have come for dispensation. Is that, I mean, is the number right? 5,000 crores? Yes, sir. Okay, sure. And these are all export heavy, predominantly exporters only, right? Those who are engaged in export and have been impacted under US heritage, etc.

Yes, sir.

Of course. As that the window has now been closed, right, that now no more as of let's say 13th of January, if a customer, similar customer wants a similar dispensation, they cannot have that, right?

Correct, it is a spot, it is 31st of January.

Okay, sure. Sorry, sorry, I missed that, sorry, this is 31st December or 31st January? January. Okay, so the window is still open. Okay. Second question, sir, on LCR, if you can suggest what was the LCR at the end of quarter 3, and as we move into April 1st, you know, you may have now higher LCR requirement on the mobile and internet banking, but at the same time you will have some release, some lower risk rates on the bulk So, we are looking

at these calculations that are being done, but here, meanwhile, we are keeping Thank you very much. First case, you want to add anything?

On the first case, whatever the guidance is said, including this prevalence,

and we have seen this HQ&A, and considering the net outflow,

we have seen this net, a ULD, positive impact on the banks are around 3%. Okay. So the net impact will be a positive impact on LCR, right?

Of 3% is what calculation is correct.

Correct, correct. So, sir, assuming you have to move to on 1st April, you need not shore up liquidity, right? If at all, you will have some relief of liquidity. Is that the right understanding or there is some other element here? You are right to say that. Okay. Sure. Sure. And secondly, sir, if you can talk about the total total gold loan of Gankov Mara, sir, the retail gold we have given is around 12,000 crores. What will be the total? Do you have every or MSME gold also or that is not very meaningful?

Now, like I said, we have all the three variants. Today, with the regulator, up to 2 lakhs being permitted to be classified as gold loan under AGREE subjective conditions. So, it goes, conditions are getting met. So, AGREE gold loan is also possible. Likewise, up to 10 lakhs for MSME is possible. For other than that, purposes, it goes to be classified as a non-priority gold loan. And the breakup, if I have to tell you, the retail is 12,000 crores, agree is 9,000 crores, and MSME, this is a new product introduction post this regulator guideline, we very quickly get this option also, so it is 1,000 crores. And this is one segment which we have been aggressively to grow and we have marked as one of our focus products. If you see quarter on quarter, we have been growing at a very high rate of 40-45% year on year. Right? 18 months back, I remember it was almost 7,500 to 8,000 crores. Today, including cold ending, we stand at 22,000 crores. So, minus around 5,000 flows of exposure in coal ending, 16,500 to 17,000 gold loan is happening to our branches. Red is what is under the coal ending tier. So, the point is, we have been also very careful that this business, although it is a very good business, attracts zero risk rates as per the guidelines, but it's the two elements, which is the purity of the gold and the safekeeping of the pledge ornaments. These two infra we will create first and then only permit a branch to venture into doing gold loans. So, I think the focus which is there has led to good growth in the portfolio, but going forward, we will keep this drive of growing the gold portfolio. 116 branches that we have opened in this FY under the project 321, we have supplied them with gold shape from day one. So, mandate is very clear. They would also be looking at doing gold loans as for the potential that is available. And to be gold loan is not the element of six traditional out-based states, but it is happening elsewhere also in the country in a big day. A lot of hope is there to grow this portfolio. A lot of gold loans are in the unorganized segment. Despite, we very clearly see after the COVID, a lot of focus has come from banks. Most of the banks have grown gold loans. But still, I would say there is a huge market that is there for coming to the banks and even the NBFCs from the unorganized segment. And the customers also stand to benefit because the interest rates getting charged in the banks particularly will be very low. So we are growing this portfolio.

Right. And sir, if you have this, I mean, that's an option.

I'm sorry to interrupt, sir. May I request you to join back the queue, please, as we have participants waiting for their turn.

Sure. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. We'll take our next question. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Bhavesh Kanani from UTI AMC. Please go ahead.

The current participant line is disconnected.

We'll move on to the next question from the line of Akshay Badlani from HTSC Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thank you for taking my question. So, my question is around the margins. So, years, what we can see is it has dropped by, you know, over 25 bps this quarter.

And before that, you know, there was 100 bps rate cut, but the years did not drop as much. So, and also the rate that happened slightly at the end of the quarter. So, I wanted to understand that why did we see as much, you know, drop in the union advances. And secondly, on cost of fund side, there also we have seen, you know, 22 bps reduction. So, is that largely term deposit reprising or have we done some reprising on savings account as well? Thank you.

So, I'll take your second question first. So, yes, we keep reviewing the interest rates being offered across spectrum of products, including the saving deposits. We also, when we look at this business, we see very clearly there are two components. One is the institutional business with the institution cassa and the retail core cassa that is happening through our branches. I have been mentioning about this vertical that was set up with the idea to reach out very systematic manner to the institutional clients, which our understanding is they have a different set of requirements. They need to be understood. Their requirements need to be understood. And we go ahead and do lot of value additions when we look at institutional CASA relationship coming into the bank, where we try to give them some technology-based solutions, which will take care of their transactional needs, saving needs, investment needs, or payments and collection needs. And that's how we bring value to those institutions. And that's how we are able to see that even in the ecosystem, many options of banks they are having, but they prefer to bank users. So, institutional CASA, we keep focusing in a different strategy altogether. The Core CASA, we are, we have done lot of new products introduction to see that today in the ecosystem, whatever segments of savers are there, whatever segments of deposits that will come from banks, from women, from kids, from professionals, from HNI, ultra-HNI, NRI, the entire product basket is available, customized products are available to them. We have gone ahead and revamped one most important channel in today's time, where the customers come and transact. It is not in the branches, but it's the mobile application, and I'm happy to share that our new mobile application is just not an upgrade of the old version, but we have totally revamped and launched a new version, where the theme or the underlying principle work, Making life simpler for clients. Letting them do transactions with minimum number of clicks. That's how the journey, that's how the ad has been developed. And it is getting a lot of good reviews, has been appreciated. Clients who have onboarded themselves are able to transact and see the difference. What the old version took 7 months for first 1 lakh downloads, we achieved first 1 lakh downloads in 14 days. And today while I speak, this is a very recent launch in September on our foundation day, but we have crossed 6 lakh active users, which in the previous version was 2 lakh 25,000 users. So, that's how we are bringing change in core casas, giving right product choices, easy, ease of customer for doing their business. Once they are on boarded, they are able to transact seamlessly with us. And that's how we are seeing slowly scheduling acquisition is coming from that element also. Core casas, stable individual deposits and the institutional. Your other question was on the e-donate. So e-donate advances, you rightly have said, but see, the earlier time, it was not the full quarter impact which was there, we had seen, and we have also passed on our rates. I did mention in my last response to a query, wherein our good rated borrowers also are demanding, I would not like to lose a borrower. And we try to, whenever a rate cut request is coming, we try to compensate that the overall profitability from that client should not have gone down. So, we always seek, while we give them good rates so that they continue to bank with us, but we try to replace the loss in the concession that we have offered through getting some ancillary business. So, overall, the income may not be seen in the avalanches book, but we will get some ancillary business, whether it's payroll accounts, whether seeking their payment and collection business, and trying to get some income through those heads. We are getting some of deposits of theirs to sit with us. That's how we try to keep compensating that the relationship continues. Our profitability with that client also should not go down. So, but then we are operating in this market. We may see another rate cut is being discussed, but we keep a close tag. We are mindful of those things and we keep doing business and if you see the bottom line, ultimately we have And we have not seen that any of my NIM ROA, ROE has seen a contraction. This is the quarter where we had, I had mentioned last time that probably we will not see any further contraction in NIM. And we have actually increased NIM by 2 bits only although, but we have increased, at least no contraction. And there is a 25 bits rate cut is what we have come. But then again, the next quarter, I will get the full quarter effects of this rate cut, and we may even, going forward, see further rate cuts. But we will keep operating and keep maintaining the bottom line and the profitability metrics. We will keep achieving those as per our guidance and try to surpass our guidance every quarter.

Sure. Thank you. Thank you for answering your question.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure management is able to answer queries from all participants, can you restrict your questions to two at a time? We'll take our next question from the line of Ashlesh Sonjay from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi team. Good evening. A few questions from my side. Firstly, can you share what is the proportion of your term deposits which are yet to be fully repriced at the lower rate? That is one. Secondly, you mentioned that the home loan disbursements which happen at the 7.1% rate are a very small proportion. Can you share that proportion with us please? And lastly, in your exchange disclosure, you have shared that roughly you bought loans worth roughly 5,000 crores in this quarter and about 12,000 crores during the nine months. Can you share what type of loans these are and who are they acquired from? Thank you.

So, first is deposit getting repriced. So, when this rate cut cycle has begun and very closely we have been seeing and monitoring this development, so our typical maturity profile against the industry standard of 12 to 15 months, our maturity profile at that point of time was 8 to 10 months. And we have seen most of the deposits by that time as got repriced. But then again, there is a fresh red cut announced. And we will see that this is a cycle which will keep happening. And we are also seeing that we don't wish our, we should keep offering when the other brands who are not able to or not able to garner deposits and they are facing challenge. They are also offering to very high rates to depositors. And I would not like my retail depositors at least to leave the bank. They are stable co-deposit. So we keep offering good rates to them. And meanwhile, not focusing on the high cost bulk, but continue to give these kind of rates to them. And so, these are the, I think, continuous dynamic challenges that you will keep seeing, and this kind of rate cuts will be happening. What is the next question, please?

The proportion of disbursements, you are at 7.1%.

Yes, sir. So, 23%. When we introduced this metric, we strengthened our underwriting of benchmark standard in home loans and all retail segment loans by saying that there will be no sanctions below 681. So, the pricing also was tweaked according to that. So, I can share with you when the 12 months have passed, the 800 and above CYBEL score which is entitled to get that 7.1 rate, 23% of sanctions in that 12 months happened in that bucket. And 57% of sanctions happened between 750 and 800 bucket. So, if you put together 23 plus 57, 80% sanctions were happening in that bucket. So while I am giving very fine rates, I am also trying to get some ancillary business because the mandate given to our field functionaries, when they sell one home loan, they will be trying to sell minimum four products on the day one. So, they will try to offer a co-branded credit card that we have now in our city. They will try to do a group credit life explaining the benefits of that team. And if they are not able to get the operative account from where the salary or the business where the servicing of EMI will happen, they will request the borrower with minimum three EMI that deposits with the bank. So, we do home loan with these three, four things together. So, that's how, but you will appreciate that the quality of loan book that is now getting created for the last 12 to 15 months, this will be of good quality. We will not see going forward the kind of slippages number guidance we are keeping to maintain it below 1. It is behaving well, 0.88 for this quarter. Annualize is 1.2. It is the trend we have seen last quarter also and couple of quarters behind us. And we would like to see that this ultimately will go down further. Any question I have missed you ask, sir? So, the full transactions that we are doing, at some point of time, we keep analyzing our portfolio that is great, and when we reach to a realization that some rebalancing is required, we will do that. So, we had also marked that we will try and reduce or reduce our over-dependence on pool transactions. While saying this, we are not adverse to doing pool at the right moment as per lead of the bank. If for some PSL classifications, I require a portfolio, we will do that. We will also do pool buyouts when we are getting a good pricing or we have other ancillary benefits with that. But my core branches business must happen first. Then we will see what we will do or not do. So the mandate given to the field functionaries, my 50 zonal offices and now 2700 branches is to stop looking at what the bulk business or pool business you will do. That's the central office call. They will see that the KRA of the Zordonizer is the core business that is happening in their set of 60-65 branches, whether it is happening or not. Their KRA is very clearly defined in those terms. So, what we have done is, sir, we have reduced our over-dependence. The December 2024 quarter, in fact, became the first quarter where we have seen YTD degrowth in the food. Year-on-year, minus 7% in food. But as I said, again, from time to time, we will keep looking at taking full partnership. Today, when in the Agree and the MSME, I mentioned about doing the rebalancing in my portfolio. It was a conscious, static decision on part of the bank. And to see that the portfolio is there, we have taken some full transactions in the last one, two quarters. We will again shift back to my branches doing the core stable business, and from time to time it is purely a central office call. We will see the profitable part of it, we will see the TSL requirements part of it, and we will see very full transactions going ahead also.

Got it, sir. Thank you. Sir, just one clarification on the first question. Fair to assume that the term deposit book is largely repriced now, and no more repricing should be expected?

So, some more, if 18 to 20 percent is likely to be repriced during this quarter, it won't come down, and some part is repriced, but, you know, moreover, what happens, like, one is after the rate tax from RBI, and then this is, you know, there are multiple rate revigants, Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much for your responses.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Bhavesh Kanani from UTI AMC. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. I hope I am happy.

Yes, please go ahead.

Yeah. So my question was on the MSME segment. Sir has mentioned couple of times that there is a rebalancing going on. So it would be helpful if you can help us at this end. And the nature of rebalancing the purpose behind that. Especially in the context that within MSME, the medium entities book seems to be de-growing dramatically. And this is surprising when we look at the sectoral GNPA numbers, it clearly reflects that medium enterprises are experiencing improving GNPA profile. So, hence the question that what is the reason behind need to rebalance. Similarly, on Agree 2, while the headline total number seems to indicate a single digit growth, Within AGRI, the AGRI infra and AGRI ancillary portions of the book are growing at a much faster rate. So what are the segments, the kind of borrowers we are serving here, that would be helpful. And the last one was on the other things. Essentially, it's sharp spikes eventually. So what is the reason behind that spike? That's all from my head.

So, thank you for the question. So, MSME, there has been some reasoning behind the change in the regulator guidelines. So, with the MSME limits getting announced, you would have seen some portfolio, which is MSME shifts. So, they have increased the limits. So, there is a portfolio which will move from MSME mid to the small segment. And likewise to micro, even some corporate accounts would have moved to MSE getting into. So that is one thing which is happening as per the change in the regulator guidelines. What we have been also looking at, re-balancing, the threats book that I am having, this is a function of not underwriting, there is no underwriting involved. It is a function of pricing. I can easily grow the Threads bill discounting portfolio by offering very steep rates, which normally is getting provided to the MSME supplier when they get their bill discounting done on the Threads platform. So, we want to see that the final purchasers from those MSMEs, are they our existing clients or not? So, we decided that we will gradually move from, if there is a debt discounting facility available, and we are not part of the consortium or we are not lenders to that entity, We would like to move into their consortium. We would like to move, even if they are into multiple arrangement or school, we would like to take their exposure in their normal credit also, whether a term loan, working capital, so that we can have more visibility on how that entity is performing, not just leaving it to doing set business all by our steps. We should have techs along with other business also. So, that is one. Second, we wanted to centralize and improve our underwriting in the MSME segment also. Two things we did. CMR 1 to 3 up to CMR 10. This is what Cibit TransUnion is assigning ranks to MSMEs from 10 lakhs to 50 crores. And we decided that CMR 1 to 5, below which no underwriting will happen in the MSME segment. So this was decision number 2. So we have been pursuing that MSME price bill discounting has been centralized from now 50 loans are not permitted. We want to centralize the portfolio, do scheme that there are two more discounting platforms which have been approved by RDI. We have signed with them also. They have also been onboarded. So, there is a lot of potential to grow, but we want to have share in their normal financing. So, this rebalancing, and if you see my September 2025, MSME growth would have been sub-optimal 2, 3, 4 percent, but we have grown now year-on-year 8 percent. So, now that impact, what rebalancing we have done, from December and onwards, I am going to get to the same level of double-digit growth, but we are mindful as a set of quality, the borrowers that are entering into my system, how comfortable we are with them, and yes, We are a very profitable segment also, so we don't want to exclude any of that part of business coming into the bank balance sheet. So this is all, I think, from my side on this MSME rebalancing.

Regarding agriculture, your question on agriculture ancillary activities, this book is going, and that is mainly food processing related activities like rice, milk, dogmills, and all that. And farm credit, there is a lead role. This is a segment where we have experienced some stress. So that's the reason we are not going very interested in this particular segment.

Okay. And the last one on other expenses.

Sir, with regard to other expenses, various sectors are impacting slightly. We have opened around 165 branches and new branches. So, the first thing is that is also considering the additional business giving expenses are also increasing. And second is also revaluation, depreciation is there. Since we last year we have revalued our sum of the assets and that is why the depreciation is also increased. And also IT capex expenses we have done so on debt part also or depreciation is also increased. So, that is why other expenses are, sorry, but on a value basis with GC, 11% increment is there.

So, in terms of the continuing for other expenses, I just was wondering if there is one of this quarter and it is going to normalize subsequently. Is there any one of them? Yes, sir.

Any one of the element is there is what we asked. You want to explain what is that one-off? What is that one-off? So, okay. So, some PLC certificates in this re-balancing is what the team is saying. 63. 63. So, that is one of transaction that has happened in this quarter. But now we have come out of that. In terms of new grant opening, what is our experience because we are doing this almost 500 branches have been opened in the last three to four years, and in this year, 116 in this FY. And we are going forward with our plan to open complete C21. So, what we are, by knowing that there will be first some increase in the OPEX, but the experience so far has been that the new branch that we have decided to open after a very scientific exercise down to We are going to pin code level trying to decide where two things must be at least. There must be existing banking business potential and that centre is also going at a good growth rate. If these two conditions qualify, we decide to open a branch there. For a branch in one centre, we have even gone to see which is the pin code within that centre where we should open. Typically, you would see a branch that a city is growing in one side. So, we will not want to open our branch in a side where nothing is happening. So, doing it very scientifically, we have decided this list of 321 branches. And what our experience is, when we are opening branches in potential growth centers of the country, we will see that they will break even also very fast. And whatever branches we have opened in the last 3 to 4 years, we have been very closely extracting those branches. So, the branches which were opened 3 years from now, all have done profitable. Branches which are opened between 2 to 3 years, 60% of them have converted to profitable. So, incrementally what is happening while I do incur some OPEX in the immediate, But, incrementally, what the new branch that has opened is giving me revenues and profit is more than offsetting the cost. So, we are not at all bothered about increasing our expenses on account of new branches. It is only this one-off item, which is there in this quarter, which will of course not be seen in the next quarter. And very critical, the other metric if you look at cost to income. Knowing that we have been, I have been doing 37-38% cost to income for couple of quarters. But since we are opening branches, we were mindful that some OPEX will go up. So my guidance has been maintained beginning of the year to maintain it below 40. But if you see cost to income, today also it is 37.192%. So, cost to women's income is also, which is almost, I should say, best in the industry, even private banks don't add that metric.

That is it, that is it, sir. Thank you for all the responses and appreciate you all the best.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nidhu Saksena, Managing Director and CEO, Bank of Maharashtra, for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

So, I think not only this quarter has been good, but the other element, which is the consistency in

the result getting delivered, is also

something element of comfort to the management and I am sure investors as a community must be looking at that, and also going forward, the kind of branch expansion that we have been doing in potential centers of the country, I think this kind of high double digits growth for the next three to four years, very clear visibility is there, is going to be maintained in the system. We will be keep growing because these branches, 3, 2, 1, doesn't end. We have board approval to open thousand branches in the next five years. We are doing it in two phases. The first phase we have taken up for three years and we took help of an external expert to help us use lot of scientific data points and tell us this is the center and they have done lot of work around the CIC data that is available, RDI data using their algorithms and they have come and told us very scientifically that in the center, So, I think this new branch expansion, which is happening, is going to sustain this fast growth rate also, and we will remain mindful of the profitability part of the business. It is not mindlessly growing the top line, but any corresponding growth in the top line, how it is impacting our bottom line, we will remain mindful on that and see that not only growth metrics, but our existing code is where the bank should have its net presence. Our asset quality, profitability metrics, our capital adequacy numbers, all are getting consistently delivered. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. On behalf of Bank of Maharashtra, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.