Earnings Call: Q2 2026

Aug 2, 2026

Summary

H1 PAT rose 74.9% to BDT 5.26bn as operating income grew 17.6%; treasury income, deposit growth and lower provisions supported results. Management flagged spread caps and ECL transition risks while prioritizing digital, retail and diversified lending.

Good noon, everyone. Welcome to City Bank PLC's earnings disclosure web event of the second quarter of 2026. I am Saida Saima Hussain, your host for the event, welcoming you today. Thank you all very much for joining us even though we're 5 minutes into the session due to some technical issue. Anyway, we will go on. Today, we have here amongst us the honorable Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of City Bank PLC, Mr. Mashrur Arefin. Additional Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman. Deputy Managing Director and Head of Wholesale Banking, Mr. Misbah Azizuzzaman. Deputy Managing Director and Head of Internal Control and Compliance, Mr. A K M Saif Ullah Kowchar, and Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Mohammad Firoz Alam. At City Bank, we take great pride in engaging the investment community in our endeavors. While disclosing our performances and actions, we adhere to a strict code of full transparency and responsibility. City Bank has always measured its success not only in terms of its bottom line numbers, but also in terms of the goals it has set for itself in order to become one of the finest banks in Bangladesh. Our success is attributed to the continued growth of our business as well as the market's evolution to satisfy the increasingly sophisticated expectations of our respective clients in the areas of liquidity, service, reliability, and mobility. We have made it this far with the help of our community, team, and stakeholders by tenaciously adhering to the motto of service and trust. In light of this, we have gathered here today to discuss the bank's current financial situation and its forward-looking strategies. We shall start with our AMD and CFO, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, presenting the financial performance, followed by our Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Mashrur Arefin, addressing all of you, and finally end with a question and answer session. Before we proceed, I'd like to inform you all that while scheduling the event, we attempted to choose the most fitting time slot so that we could accommodate most of the participants, both from local and foreign vicinities and time zones. I'd also like to add that we have opened our Q&A portal, which you can see at the bottom right corner of your screen. During our presentation, you can log in and place any relevant question in the window. We shall try our best to address them in our Q&A session, depending on the time available for the program. Ladies and gentlemen, I now request our AMD and CFO, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, to start with the financial performance presentation. Over to you, sir. Hope you can see the presentation better? Yes, it is visible. Okay. Asalam Alaikum, and good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to meet you again with our half-yearly results. Like before, I will start the presentation with a little bit glimpse about the macroeconomic situation, and later, in the second part, we will present the financial performance and position of City Bank after the end of June 30, 2026. First, actually, we all know that what is the current GDP growth rate. It is hovering around 4%. We are projecting to have higher GDP growth in the next financial year. Inflation was a concern, but after the end of June, we have seen that it is a bit dipping inflation. Export growth, though we have a quite significant year-on-year growth in June, almost more than 25%. Overall, export remained at the same level compared to last year, which is $48.4 billion. Import has seen a little growth from $68 billion to $74 billion with 8% growth. The main foreign currency source is remittance, which has seen a significant growth of 17%. Overall, remittance has become $35.5 billion in one year. FX reserve also showing a strong position with $32.9 billion. Overall current account deficit has actually reduced significantly. Financial account position has improved because of the growth in remittance and stability in export. Private sector credit growth is low. We all know that. It is also around 5%. NPL ratio of the industry is still very high, but actually that does not give the true picture of the good banks in the country. If you consider the NPL ratio of the tier banks, for example, if you call NPL ratio of BRAC Bank, Pubali Bank and other good banks, the ratio is less than 4%. Now I will actually highlight the financial performance of City Bank. I am starting with the main activities of the bank, that is the loans and advance. City Bank has actually done very good considering the overall credit growth situation. We have seen that, which is below 5%. City Bank loan has grown by 8.4% from the beginning of the year. Interest income has also grown by 5.4% year-on-year. Interest yield on advance also remain almost at the same level. Most of our loan portfolio is in wholesale banking, which is 58% at this moment, though it was 61%. It means that actually our other segment, which is part of the City Bank strategy to diversify our portfolio, has increased significantly in the last 6 months. I already have told you that our loan growth is more than 8%. Deposit also by this, like last 2 years, our deposit is also growing very significantly. From December, our deposit has grown by 15.6% and we ended the June with almost BDT 730 million equivalent of deposit. Interest expense, on the other hand, actually increased by 4.4%. Also, cost of deposit also remained at the same level for us. Actually, why our interest expense only grew by 4.4% because our borrowing cost actually reduced significantly. As we have significant growth in deposit, we have reduced our borrowing. That is why we could save a significant cost under interest expense. Again, retail banking actually contributes the most for our deposit. You can see that 64% of our deposit is coming from retail, which was around 61% 1 year before. That means that our retail business of City Bank is growing quite fast. Though CASA ratio is around 42%, it was 43%, because we have booked a term deposit, because interest rate was quite high, so naturally depositor actually has chosen term deposit more, when they open account with us. But still we are acquiring a significant amount of current account, current and savings account continuously. So overall, spread situation is remain at same level. We started with 5% spread and still it is 5%. Because you have seen that our yield on advance and cost of deposit almost remain at the same level. Investment, on the other hand, as actually we have high deposit growth. On the other hand, our credit growth is 8%, which is not significant for us. As we have significant surplus liquidity, so still we are investing in treasury bill and bond, which is reflected here. You can see that from December, our investment amount has increased by 46% and the current outstanding is BDT 303.5 billion. Accordingly, our investment income has also increased by 15.5% from BDT 16.5 billion to BDT 19.1 billion year-on-year. Though country's export basically has become stalled at this moment, so there is almost no growth in export. But, in our case, our export business has grew by 12.4%, from $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. Our import has also increased significantly from $1.7 billion to $2.6 billion with 53% year-on-year growth. Accordingly, our commission and other income from this business has increased by 17.2% year-on-year. Here also you can see that both commission and FX gain has increased in last 6 months. Credit card business is one of the strengths of City Bank, and here you can see that our credit card base is increasing. Though we all know that we have relatively low GDP growth, our credit card business is growing by more than 7%, and the number is increasing, and credit card bill business is also increasing. Last year year-on-year, we achieved almost 18% growth. Credit card income also saw a significant growth on a year-on-year basis. We achieved 38.6% growth in credit card income. Altogether, our revenue has grown by 17% year-on-year and on a consolidated basis, our revenue has reached BDT 26.7 billion from BDT 22.9 billion. On the other hand, operating expense has grown a little bit higher this year with 23.4% year-on-year growth. In six months, our operating expense has reached BDT 12.3 billion. The major reason for the increase in operating expense is that as our business is growing very fast, we are recruiting quite significantly, 95% retail. We are having significant growth in business. We added 182 employees. It shows that City Bank has grown very fast and we see more prospect incoming. We also added around 50 new branches. We have expanded our back office and we added more than 134,000 sq ft of office space in the last one year. Our investment in IT, for achieving our digital goal, is also going on significantly. Altogether, our operating expense has increased quite significantly, but it is for investment purpose and ensuring the growth of the bank in coming days. Operating profit, after deducting OPEX from the revenue, has increased by 12% year-on-year and reached BDT 14.4 billion in the last six months. After operating profit, we deduct provision, debt charge. Our debt charge has reduced, compared to last year's six-month debt charge, and reduced by 27.8% year-on-year. Last year in the same period, we charged BDT 6.5 billion. Here, in six months, we charged BDT 4.7 billion. Our interest ratio has increased, but because of the calculation as per the regulation, our debt charge has reduced. We are still maintaining a significant additional provision. Here you can see our provision coverage ratio, which has increased from 127% to 132.8%. That means our risk is well covered. We have four other subsidiaries which are not significant in terms of the operation and the business and the profit contribution. After considering the net profit of subsidiaries, our overall profit has increased by almost 75% year-on-year. Last year in the first six months, we achieved BDT 3.01 billion of profit after tax. In these first six months, we achieved BDT 5.2 billion of profit after tax. It is a significant increase in profit after tax. I think this is one of the highest ever half-yearly results of City Bank Group. Accordingly, our ROE has increased from 2025. Last year in the same period, our ROE on a consolidated basis was 12.7%. This year, for the first six months, our ROE is 16.5%. Accordingly, ROA has increased from 1.8% to 1.1%. Earning per share also increased from BDT 1.72 per share to more than BDT 3 in first six months. NAV or book value per share has also increased from 35.37 on a consolidated basis to BDT 37.6. Capital adequacy ratio, which actually basically very important, considering the overall risk scenario. Here you can see that our capital adequacy ratio has also improved significantly. From the beginning of the year, from 15.7% to 16.3%. Especially in last six months, we have raised almost BDT 11 billion worth of subordinated bond to support our business growth. We declared that we are going to raise BDT 12 billion of subordinated bond, and out of BDT 12 billion, almost we have raised BDT 11 billion. It also shows the credibility and the acceptability of City Bank in the bond market as well. This is the credit rating position of the bank. As per Moody's credit rating, as we cannot go beyond the country's credit rating, our credit rating is B2 according to Moody's. But the leading credit rating company of Bangladesh has rated City Bank as a AAA, and we are still continuing this rating for last one year. I want to actually discuss a little bit new thing, in next two, three slides. We have added actually few new businesses in last three, four years. Here is some of the success story that we like to share with you. You know that City Bank is the first bank who has introduced nano-lending in the country. Already we have actually added 3.5 million unique customer, and already we have disbursed BDT 100 billion worth of taka under nano-lending through digital platform. The good thing is that out of total lending, 60% has gone to the rural area. Also female customer is around 22%, when the overall country's actually female customer for the banking industry is 19%. This is actually basically a great success for financial inclusion and the digital strategy for the bank. Another thing is that we have revamped our Citytouch, we think that we are the number one mobile app in the country. Also, the volume has grown by 14% in this year. After the revamp or restructure of Citytouch, we hope that this will actually have a significant impact on the growth of our bank. Here also, we like to actually share what is the personal profile of the bank. The interesting thing is that in last five years, our lending customer has increased actually 12 times in five years. If you look at the pyramid, you can see that our lending customer number was around 0.35 million, which has increased to more than 4 million after the end of 30th June. Also out of this total customer, our 29% customer are female. This is also much higher compared to our industry standard. If you look at the deposit account holder, which has also increased continuously, even one year before, it was 2.75 million and which has increased to 2.92 million. Out of that, 84% are maintaining current and savings accounts with the bank. It means that actually City Bank are providing a lot of banking service, and we are attracting this low-cost deposit by providing these various kind of service. We have already become a number one choice for the retail customer. Now I will hand over my part to our CRO, who will actually present our progress in the sustainable finance. Firdaus, you may start. Thank you, Mohammed. Asalamu alaikum, and good afternoon. As you all know, City Bank is an environmentally and socially responsible bank. We are country's number one sustainable bank rated by the Bangladesh Bank. Sustainability is an important part of our core values and business practice. Considering this, we also set our objectives and strategy in sustainable finance and ESG. Let's have a look at our objective and the strategy about our sustainability. We categorize our objectives in broad two criteria. One is expanding green finance portfolio and also climate and ESG risk management of City Bank portfolio and internal operation. In expanding green finance portfolio, the main objective is to expand here because by this financing, we can reduce carbon emission and also we can prevent environment pollution. Also, you know that the NPL of this green financing is very low. At this moment, our NPL is 0.01%, our industry is less than 1%. One of the major objectives why we are going there. Also, it creates a win-win institution for the bank as well as the customer because we are arranging low cost financing for the customer, for the green financing. Another objective is to meet the Central Bank targets. To capture or achieve these objectives, we already set our long term. Sorry, previous slide. Long-term capital planning for the green investment. We already sourcing our low cost funding from DB, DFI and MDBs. We are also planning to green bond and also to building capacity for awareness of the customers as well as the internal stakeholder. Also, we take a lot of objectives in the climate ESG management. We already take initiatives for the measuring 100% carbon emission of our portfolio as well as the internal operation, also implement climate risk management and also assessing environmental social risk. To implement this, we already implement the climate and environmental social risk management policy, green office guideline, occupational health safety guideline, also automated our ESG software. We also develop our internal in-house calculation of the emission by help of the Deloitte. On top of, we also appoint the PCAF, we join with PCAF model. Next. This is a brief of our achievement in the sustainable financing. We already in the first half of this year, we disbursed almost BDT 92 billion in sustainable finance and BDT 8.7 billion in green finance. We have another portfolio in liability side, we have the green savings account. Till date, we already opened almost 58,000 account. The deposit amount of this fund, actually, we using the green and sustainable financing. Also, we plan to achieve for the every account. This is also brief of our green financing activities, and we disbursed BDT 43.5 billion in renewable energy project, funded BDT 1.6 billion in LEED and green certified clients, and financed BDT 1.2 billion in the energy resource efficiency. Also disbursed BDT 9 billion in Agri loan in the first half of 2026. We also already mentioned that as part of our carbon emission calculation, we already calculating Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. We also generated 8.2 megawatts solar energy through establishing or installation of the solar panel in our branches, sub-branches, our ATM and agent outlets. Also we established 10 rainwater harvesting in our branches and head offices. This is actually our recognition or participation with the international bodies and organizations. We already are the member of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Under this Principles for Responsible Banking, we are the first bank from Bangladesh. We also sign MoU with UNDP for collaboration of ESG, climate risk, and green bond. We also join in the PCAF, already mentioned, that do calculation of the carbon accounting financials on top of our initial development of the calculating of the carbon and green financing. Also we have the work with lot of development partners, Global Climate Partnership Fund, Norfund, ADB, AIIB, OeEB, and the BII. This is our recognition by the local and international bodies. You know, we are the top number one sustainable bank rated by the Central Bank, and we also top sustainable banks for the last five years in a row. We also are rated by the Bloomberg and also rated by the international bodies. Okay. This is one of the initiatives for the ESG reporting, and this is available in our website. You can scan QR. Okay. This is our climate report. This report is actually on December 2024. Our latest report is in the process, and it will be uploaded very shortly. Very recently, City Bank is awarded as the most sustainable bank of the year 2026 by the SDG Bank forum. Okay. This is also awarded by City Bank Bangladesh Most Green Finance Bank of the Year, awarded by Asian Banking & Finance Wholesale Banking Awards 2026. That is all from my end. Okay. Thank you, Firoz. Sustainable finance and ESG is a core strategy of City Bank. Before providing financing to our customer, we also assess the ESG condition of the customer. Accordingly, we set the risk rating, ESG rating, as well as mitigation measure with every customer. It is very much a core business process of City Bank. This is the last slide of the bank. You have already seen that we have got a huge recognition for the success of our sustainable financing. Also, in last 6 months, we have got few more awards, and most notable award is by Financial Times, which has actually awarded City Bank as the best bank for Bangladesh for 2025. We have also got other awards as a best retailer or also best bank by other Global Finance magazine. With that, I would like to end my presentation. I am handing over this session to Saima. Again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very big thanks to our MD and CFO and Chief Risk Officer for such an insightful presentation on the financial performance. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to call upon Mr. Mashrur Arefin, Managing Director and CEO of City Bank PLC, to speak about the views and forward-looking strategies of the bank. Over to you. Thank you, Saima. Thank you, our Additional MD and CFO, Mahbub Rahman, and our Chief Risk Officer, Firoz Alam, for giving such a brief, good outlook of the bank as you see it after the end of the first 6 months. I would like to say, as the CEO of the institution, that to be honest, things are going good for City Bank. It is very much written on the financials, as you can see. There are certain risks there because of the regulatory policy-related changes. Number one is, we need to maintain, we will have to maintain 4% spread, which right now our spread is 4.8%. It hovers around 5%, so 1% spread we will lose when we comply with this. There will be a blow that is coming out of it on our profitability. This is one. Another thing you know, that Bangladesh is going to adopt ECL, expected credit loss. As soon as that happens, though we have certain time, we have 1 year and a few months in hand, but we need to get ready. This is number two. Number three is that expected credit loss will actually not consider a lot of the rescheduled books as performing loans. So we will need to keep provision against those. So there is another worrisome thing that is going to happen for the industry, not only for City Bank, it is for all. Earlier also spread is for all. That circular has already come. The number three big issue is going to be that policy rate has shifted for 50 basis points only last week. Also, this is connected to the 4% spread in whichever way we now reduce the deposit rate, which we have done today. We will also have to reduce the lending rate, but this whole thing will need to be managed, keeping in mind that 4% is the net spread that the bank can charge. Giving you these three little bit of a negative outlook about the banking industry, now let me get to the point. Risks will always be there. Situations will always change. Regulatory will always add up to different means and procedures to take care of the entire macroeconomy. So there will be this kind of challenges always there in new forms and formats. So we are not too worried about it. What we look at are the basics. The basics of City Bank is speaking very high about us as the team. Like say, our income, what I would like to call the number one thing, whether your earning is growing or not, whether your income is stagnant or not. You can look at last year's first six months. Mahbub has already explained, there was BDT 2,620 crore was the earning of City Bank in this first six months time. That income has actually. Just give me a second. Okay, let me get into income minus expense, the ultimate PAT terms, because there are so many numbers in front of me. Simple, BDT 301 crore or $25 million was last year's first half months, and this year it has come to BDT 526 crore, $42 million. $25 million to $42 million, which is 74.9% growth in profit after tax. As a solo basis, City Bank has done BDT 518 crore. Consolidated basis, City Bank has done BDT 527 crore. BDT 9 crore has been added by four of the subsidiaries of City Bank. We are not so lucky as to have such a successful subsidiary as BRAC Bank has in the form of bKash. Our one is brokerage subsidiary, one is capital market subsidiary, one remittance company in Malaysia, and one finance company, trade facilitation company in Hong Kong. All of them together has given us BDT 9 crore, a little less than $1 million. City Bank itself is a behemoth, is a big one. City Bank has booked BDT 518 crore, and total together it has brought in BDT 526 crore, which is $42 million. As I was looking at the total income figure, that figure now I have in my hand. Last year first six months, can you give me last year first six months? I need to complete my sentence. Since I mentioned that, I will give you the figures. Now, with regard to certain other things I would like to say is that you have seen the growth of. Last year's first six months was BDT 2,290 crore, BDT 22,908 million, and this year it is BDT 2,679 crore. There is a change in volume by around BDT 4,000 crore, which is 17% growth in the operating income of City Bank. Meaning at the bottom line, we are earning good. We are earning stably very good. Also here I would like to mention that the cost-wise also, if you look at the operating cost number, which just give me a second. Yes. Finally, I've got the paper that I was looking for. Operating cost-wise, it has been operating income 18% growth, operating cost 26% growth. Of course, that leaves us with an operating profit of BDT 1,422 crore, which itself shows profit growth of 12% profit growth. But at the after-tax level, because of the lower tax we needed to pay and the provision requirement coming below what was anticipated, the after-tax profit has grown by 72%. Now, I would like to say that on the provision side, if you look at another good side of City Bank, provision in this last six months, we have kept for BDT 465 crore provision. But additionally, there is something like BDT 300 crore additional provision kept in the form of the general provision for certain loans which we reckon may actually turn bad. But we have additionally kept certain provision to withstand the shocks that may come. Overall, to sum up this, the good sides are we are commanding a good yield on advance, which is above 10%, around 10.5%. We are still able to maintain the cost of deposit, though taking certain high-interest deposits in order to fund our investment plan into government securities. Still cost of deposit has been retained at 5.5%, 5.6%. Overall, we have been able to command a NIM of around 5%, 4.8%, 4.9%, which is the number one thing I would say. Overall, our cost-income ratio is, when I became the CEO, it was 58%. Overall, in last year, we ended at 44%. Previous year it was 42%. 2023 was at 51%. But right now, even after six months of certain new costs that we have taken due to our IT expenditure mainly, our future dream project, which is a digital bank of ours, and our new Citytouch internet banking has been launched. All these have pushed up the cost. Plus also investing into small and microfinance business. Even after all this, cost-income ratio for first six months is 45.7%. This is the snapshot is, bullet point one is that income is growing at 18% rate of the bank. Cost shows a little bit of higher growth, but I explained where the costs are happening. But end of the day, cost and income, the ratio is 45.7%, one of the best ratios in the country. Another good thing is that we have, as I said, additional provision. We have kept certain number of additional provision, certain good amount, earmarked against certain loan accounts. This is one. Another thing is that the growth of our efficient management of tax that overall has translated into 72% growth in after-tax profit for the first six months. This is one, yield and cost of deposit and NIM and the overall top P&L lines that I've mentioned. Now, question comes is how much you are earning from loan and how much you are earning from investment income because there's been lot of media chats and media news is in the market after City Bank's 72% growth in PAT. Market did some misreporting, which I would like to correct here. This is the right forum. You all are honored investors, honorable investors of the bank. Simple figure is that we brought in lot of deposits last year, lot of deposits because we needed to run this big machine in an efficient way. Total deposit growth of the bank. Just a second. Total deposit of the bank grew around 16%, last year's first six months and this year first six months. $80 million net deposit came in. And loan grew $34 million. So, what do I do with that extra deposit? We are a popular brand. In Bangladesh, there are only five, six, seven good banks people really trust, and City is one of the top one or two or three maximum. So what do we do with that extra million dollars, extra around $40 million or so? And plus we have also bonds and borrowings and other capital around BDT 15,000 crore. So that we invested in treasury bill bonds. Our investment in treasury bill bonds also grew by around $77 million. So this is, if you take it against the deposit grew by $80 million, treasury bill bonds investment grew by $78 million, and the loan grew 8.4%. So treasury bill bond investment grew 46%. Mahbub mentioned it. But loan didn't grew at that rate. It only grew at 8.4% only. So this is effective management of balance sheet when there is that kind of instrument available. What is happening is when media is showing City Bank's earning profile as is shown in the balance sheet and the P&L statement, certain thing is not shown there, like what is your total loan interest income? What is your total investment income, net basis, and what is your fee commission income? That figure I am giving you now. Normally what happens is that investment income that you have earned against that there are two costs. You needed to bring that deposit, so there is an interest income related expenses on that deposit. Plus also, with that investment being made, you are going to the repo window and taking repo at the rate of 10%. There is a repo cost also. So this, if you deduct from the gross investment income, then you get the net picture. When you look at the net picture, you see that loan net interest has grown by 3.04%. Investment income has actually grown net by BDT 852 crore, which is 31%, not the 72%. I think I am confusing you a little. If you go, without digging deep into it, looking at the balance sheet, you see that investment income, City Bank has earned total income 72% is investment income. That is wrong. Total income is 31.79% is from investment income. Total income has also, last year first six months, we had loan interest income BDT 1,321 crore. We have this year BDT 1,282 crore we have earned from loan interest. Our investment income was BDT 524 crore last year. This year is BDT 852 crore actually, because you need to deduct the costs against this earning. Your fee commission income was last year BDT 446 crore. This year is BDT 545 crore. It has grown by BDT 22 crore. I mean to say that total income of the bank from BDT 2,291 crore, it has gone to BDT 2,680 crore. So total income of the bank has grown. Total income of the bank is growing, and this is actually a growth of the total income has grown by Correct? 2,291 and 2,680. It is grown, sir. Yeah. Total income has grown by 18%, 17.6%. There is no scope to misinterpret the bank's earning from investment income. Whenever you are calculating the earning, you are forgetting, generally, the media is forgetting that behind that earning, there is a huge interest expense. We needed to bring that deposit, extra deposit. I gave you the figures, $80 million deposit growth, but loans grew by only $34 million. Still, we kept on taking the deposit because there is a good earning potential in that. Credit growth is not really in my hand. That's a macroeconomic issue. Industry credit growth is hovering around 3% to 4%. I'm happy that City Bank grew, but at 8.4% rate. Because of the high growth, as our CFO said, in the digital nano-loan, in small and microfinance lending, and in retail lending, there has been good credit growth. I cannot force-fit the credit growth. Those loans will go bad. Asif is here, our DMD wholesale banking. If the demand for large LCs and factory setup and BMRE and mills and factories are not there, we don't want to unrealistically or kind of force-fit the customer statement. We are growing in certain segments where the NPL ratio is much lower, and we believe that the growth overall quantum is lower. It's not that big, but these growth are very meaningful if you look at the long-term picture of the bank. I'm almost at the end of my talk. If I close it, and if you look at the long-term angle of the bank, how we are trying to fortify ourselves against the oncoming risks and how we are building the institution, not only a good bank. Number one is look at the CAR, capital adequacy ratio, with the last Tier-1 capital was only 7.2%. Today it is 11%, Tier-1. Total capital five, six years ago was 12.2% adequacy ratio. Today, we command an adequacy ratio of 16.1%. This is one. Another long-term great thing for City Bank, I would like to say, is that provision coverage ratio. Six years ago, it was 72.7%. Meaning, against 100 Taka NPL, how much provision you have kept. Earlier it was 72.7%, and today it is 132.8%. So this is another second great thing. The third great thing is the NPL ratio. It was 5.3%, and today it is 2.8% NPL ratio. So these are the three things, plus fourth is our ability to earn that kind of net interest margin. Plus fifth thing is that our ability to contain our cost, which was around 60% cost income, and we have been able to contain it within 40%-45% range. These five things are there, and these things are temporary. Our earnings super high through investment income. What is wrong in that? When the loan growth is so slow, if customers are depositing by trusting City Bank so much, and after bearing the repo cost and the deposit cost, if you are earning in a fully legal way by investing into GSec, government securities, this is all good. As a banker, looking at the future of the industry, I would like to say that I would like to see that growth happening in lending. Because lending benefits business people, lending benefits the growth of industrial sector growth. Of course, I would like to have that lending. But as long as in Asif's area, that kind of a lending or medium sector, that kind of lending is naturally not happening because due to it being a new government, people are taking time, et cetera. Till that time, we would like to grow in where we are actually growing. That is in addition to the growth in the treasury business. That is, we are growing into digital nano-lending, we are growing in small microfinance, and we are growing into retail lending and cards. This is our main growth area. In Asif's area and our DMD Azam, Adian Sabih, in these two areas, growth should not be pushed. We should be taking time, let the growth happen naturally. As I already mentioned about the risks in future, the risk is the spread 4% is a matter of worry. Today, the ABB Association, where I'm the chairman, we're sitting at Eastern Bank head office at 7:00 to discuss these points. ECL is an issue because we have large rescheduled books. I couldn't have been happier than what I am now, looking at the first 6 months. All good with 72% after-tax profit growth. I only wish that our subsidiaries will also keep pace with us. They will grow in terms of profitability to the same rate. So overall, this is where I would like to end. If you have any question to ask me, I tried my best to explain the investment income puzzle, which media is carrying news against Bangladesh's good banks, though all of whom are faced with low credit growth. So there was no other way. This is a large economy of half a trillion dollar, and there are only a few good banks where entire deposit sector is coming to those banks. So we are all earning against a very legal instrument, G-Sec, which is the sovereign instrument. So I believe first 6 months has been good. Mahbub has touched upon many other points. Our capital adequacy ratio is going to get even better. Our trade volume is steady. We would like to reach $10 billion trade this year. We are almost there. Our asset quality, we have been maintaining in a healthy way. Our ROE, he has mentioned, our return assets, he has mentioned. So I will not like to repeat. I tried my best to cover the areas of risk and the prospects. Prospect for City Bank is, since the word has come to my mouth, the prospect is that the way we are growing, we are growing not in a very cost-heavy way. Of course, our small and microfinance business is quite cost-heavy business, but our knack for digital is solving things for us, and we are going to get into AI. I am personally talking to BCG, Boston Consulting Group. I am yet to brief the management committee of the bank. On the AI capability of City Bank, we will be working, and we are now chasing the launch of the digital bank. We have already spent a lot. Our country's most powerful internet banking app is Citytouch. We can claim that very confidently. So that has been relaunched. People are happy. There's an AI-powered internet banking. Retail bank is doing phenomenally well in this bank, and also small microfinance and digital lending is going great. As I said that wholesale bank corporate and medium, they are focusing on trade earnings, and they are focusing on nurturing existing clients. Also whenever any blue-chip company are approaching us, they are also trying to push that. Plus, Asif, our Head of Wholesale Banking, whom you see on the screen, is also chasing the growth in the China business. China in itself is something big in Bangladesh. Japan also is big in Bangladesh. A lot of business happening in that sector. We are in the process of launching China Desk. Our Hong Kong business, Hong Kong subsidiary is now effectively reporting to corporate banking to get the full benefit. These are the great things happening. Overall, we are all compliant institution, audit-wise, ability-wise. I see that this year will be great. Let's face the challenges of next year when time comes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Big thanks to our MD, Managing Director and CEO for such an informative speech. I am sure it was of great help to our investment community. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on to our Q&A session. The first question is, what is management's CASA target for the end of 2026, and where is the incremental deposit growth currently coming from, the corporate, retail, or SME? Yes, I can give it the snapshot. Main deposit is coming from retail segment. Our retails, as I have mentioned in my presentation, that retail contribution is increasing in our portfolio. You have seen that, which was 60% last year. This year, retail is contributing 63%. On the other hand, CASA contribution is around 42%. We are targeting to achieve 45% this year. Thank you. But in future, the contribution will increase much more when actually we will have other technological change, then it will improve drastically. Thank you. Moving on to the next question. Private sector credit growth was estimated at only 5.5% in June 2026. Which sectors does City Bank expect will generate sufficient credit demand to support its future loan growth target? Also, people who follow our pie chart, you can see that now 58% is being contributed by corporate. So in near future, our growth will actually happen based on our current structure, corporate, medium segment, then our micro, small segment, and retail segment, all will contribute their contribution according to the position. But gradually, that is the medium and long-term target that will have higher growth in sectors other than corporate. Corporate will have their normal growth. So this same kind of growth will actually continue. Sometimes what happens, like for example, when there is inflation, then retail and small credit growth becomes risky, then we tighten the credit process. Then we go for large loan growth. So sometimes, due to economic situation, it varies, the growth momentum varies. But our long-term plan is actually to have a very diversified portfolio, and we will achieve that. Thank you, sir. Moving on to the next question. Bangladesh Bank and the World Bank identify energy costs and supply constraints as material risk to inflation, industrial production, and future growth. Under an energy shortage scenario, what sectors would face the greatest repayment and working capital pressure? I think Arif can also comment. I think even we are facing now, the country is facing the energy shortage, particularly gas supply. But the government is closely working on it, because without gas, our manufacturing sector cannot grow. So we believe that this is under highest priority of the government, and they will address it. If gas is not there, supply shortage is definitely the power sector and the textile sector will be affected directly, and some other smaller sectors will be directly affected. So we are observing it. Let's see how the development goes. Thank you. We will now move on to the last question of the session. With Bangladesh Bank targeting ECL-based provisioning under IFRS 9 during 2027, what is City Bank's current estimate of the additional provision required on transition, and what would be the resulting impact on retained earnings, net asset value per share, and regulatory capital? Actually, I can again actually- Mahbub will admit. Yes. Assessment is still going on, and we have actually done our draft level assessment and also draft policy. A lot of planning clarification are still needed from Central Bank. That work is still going on. What actually I can say from our preliminary assessment is that there is very less possibility, but I think no should be the statement. Very less possibility that City Bank NAV will reduce or our earning per share will become negative or ROE become negative. Definitely there will be a hit, as it happens all part of the world. Same thing will happen in Bangladesh, and good banks will actually still have a very strong position after implementation of ECL. There will be some challenging period, but City Bank and other good banks will definitely overcome very nicely after implementation of ECL. I think Arefin can add on. No, just ECL, as I said that in today, ABB's board meeting, which is going to happen in 2 hours time, ECL is the number one agenda. It is an all-bank issue. It is a great practice as per Basel. We need to adapt to it. There is no debate. It is about the health of the institution, long-term basis. We in Bangladesh, we have our own credit culture. At the same time, Bangladesh's own kind of credit culture where NPL is one of the highest in the world, you know. Still in that kind of an economy, we are 2.8% NPL ratio, where country's average NPL ratio is 36%-37% industry. Banks like City Bank, which has some rescheduled books, of course there will be certain risk. But as Mahbub said that those are common for all in the industry, nothing is specific to City Bank. This is meant to be good in the longer term. Initially, there will be initial shocks and bumps on profitability for initial 2-3 years. This is all good for the industry. We welcome the advent or welcome the adoption of ECL. We do welcome that. We are professional bankers. We believe that this is how the globally community, banking community recognizes risk. We should be doing that. Initial, whatever profitability dip happens, that's only temporary. Just 2 years or so, then again, we'll be getting back to the same return equity level. Our calculation is ongoing, as Mahbub said. We cannot share with you any numbers on a half-cooked basis. We should not. On half-cooked basis, we shouldn't be sharing any number. It's a very complicated calculation. Firoz is leading it, our Chief Risk Officer. I got the initial number, but no. More study, more work needs to be put into it. All the banks are required to submit their numbers to Central Bank, so work is ongoing now. Thank you. Thank you. That ends our Q&A session. A very big thanks to our panel for providing such informative answers to the queries of our investors. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of today's earnings disclosure event. Thank you all for your participation and patience. Before concluding, let me inform you that the recorded version of the entire event will be made available in the same web link as for the live program very shortly. Those of you who missed the live event or want to skim through it at a later time will find the whole event documented there. The financial presentation will also be made available in City Bank's website under the Investor Relations section. We appreciate your participation and patience. Thank you again for your interest in City Bank PLC. Goodbye. Stay safe and stay well. Thank you. Thank you, Saima. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. We will just take a picture again for the press release. Everyone, please look at the camera.