Earnings Call: Q2 2025

Jul 31, 2025

Summary

H1 revenue rose 25% solo and consolidated net profit grew 20.7%, supported by strong investment income. Loan and deposit growth exceeded sector levels, while rising NPLs, provisions and deposit costs remained challenges.

Welcome to City Bank PLC earnings disclosure web event of the second quarter of 2025. I am Saida Saima Hussain, your host for the event, welcoming you today. Thank you all very much for joining us. Today, we are honored to have among us Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, acting managing director and chief financial officer, who will preside over the meeting in the absence of our managing director and chief executive officer, Mr. Mashrur Arefin, who is currently outside the country for an official engagement. Moving on to the next member of our esteemed panel is Deputy Managing Director and Head of Wholesale Banking, Mr. Mesbaul Asif Siddiqui; 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 performance 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 stockholders 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 strategy. We shall start with our AMD and CFO, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, presenting the financial performance and conclude the event with an interactive question and answer session. Before we proceed, I would like to inform you all that while scheduling the event, we attempted to choose the most fitting time slots that we could accommodate most of the participants from local and foreign vicinities and time zones. I would also like to add that we have opened our Q&A portal, which you can see at the bottom right corner of your screens. During our presentation, you can log in and place any relevant questions 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. Okay. Thank you, Saima. I am sharing the presentation. Hope, you can see. Hello, Saima. Can you see it? Yes. The presentation is visible. Okay. Welcome everyone to our earning disclosure for quarter 2. We are really happy to be here to present our result and discuss about the progress of the bank and our outlook. First, we start with our macro and industry outlook. Probably you are aware of it, but just we are highlighting a few points. You all know that GDP is, at this moment, is around 4%. Despite having political challenges and global issues, the country is, I think, still having a good GDP rate. The projection for the GDP for next year is higher than this, as projected by World Bank, IMF, and ADB. We are hopeful that, with strong macroeconomic indicators, the country will move to normal GDP rate around 5.5%-6% again. One of the major challenges of the country was foreign inflation. We have been suffering from double-digit inflation, which has come down to single digit after a long time. It is now around 8.5% point-to-point basis at the end of June. Food inflation has also come down. It is a great relief for our consumer, and it is a good news for our business. Country external exposure is getting stronger. Here you can see that export is still going, even though we heard of a lot of global challenges, but still, we are having around 8% export growth, which reached $48.3 billion from $44 billion. Import has also increased little bit, reached $66 billion from $63 billion. Most remarkable achievement we have seen in remittance, which has grew by 27% from around $24 billion to $30 billion. Because of this very high growth in remittance and good growth in export, our foreign exchange position has improved quite a lot. It was around $20.7 billion, which improved to $26.7 billion, according to the calculation of IMF. Our current account balance also improved drastically. It was a deficit in current account balance, was $6 billion, which has reduced to only $400 million. It is a great relief for the countries from the point of view, external shock. The country is again come to a very strong footing in terms of dealing with external issues. Private sector credit growth is a little bit timid. It is around 6.4%, because of, definitely you can understand, because of the political issues. It is little bit slow, but hope it will get the momentum very soon. NPL situation is showing, it has actually deteriorated. The overall NPL ratio has increased to 20%. Out of this NPL, most of the NPL comes from the problem banks. We all know that the problem banks has contributed the highest amount of NPL in this overall NPL portfolio. Other than this problem bank and few government banks, still the other private commercial bank is having much less NPL compared to this ratio. Now we are coming to City Bank's issues. We ended the second half with a quite satisfactory loan growth. Our loan growth was 13%. I have seen that the country's overall credit growth was 6%-7%, but our credit growth is higher than the country's credit growth. For the first time, we have crossed BDT 500 billion in this first half, so it is another milestone for the City Bank. On the other hand, interest income has grown by 28.6% from BDT 20.5 billion to BDT 26.4 billion. The main reason for this higher interest income is the rise of interest rate. You know that the Central Bank has opted for higher policy rate to contain the inflation. It has led to increase of interest rate in the market, which for the time being is good for the bank. We are earning higher interest income, as you can see from this slide. Here you can see that our various segments is contributing quite significant growth to the overall portfolio. Wholesale banking is holding 61%. Recently we have merged our commercial banking with wholesale banking as most of the commercial banking customer has become quite large. So we have merged those two business unit into one. That is why, earlier even, if you remember, one or one and a half years back, wholesale banking used to show 50% contribution to the loan, but now it is showing 61% because of the merger. Retail is the second largest contributor with 17%. Small and microfinance, 9%. Medium segment, 10%. So all segments are having growth. In last one year especially, we are having higher growth in wholesale banking, retail, and small and microfinance is also growing consistently all through the year. Deposit. Here, we think that this is one of the strong area of City Bank. You can see that deposit is growing at a very high rate. Our growth rate is 17% in six month. Also in deposit, we have crossed BDT 600 billion for the first time in City Bank history. Last year also, we had around 25% growth. This year also in half year, we have grown by 17%. You may ask that why interest expense has risen so much. We will explain later on. Interest expense has increased by 98%, from BDT 12.4 billion to BDT 24.6 billion. As I have already told you that policy rate has increased, and because of that, all banks have increased the FDR or term deposit rate. Naturally, when term deposit rate is increased in the banking industry, our customer tend to deposit their money in term deposit. That is why our growth in term deposit was higher, and that is why interest cost has increased. But we will show you how we have recovered this additional cost through alternative investment strategy. Here you can see that the cost of deposit has increased from 4.17% to 5.5%. Then in the next slide, you can see that retail contributes 61% of deposit, but wholesale banking is also contributing very strongly to the growth of deposit by providing very state-of-the-art correspondent solution. If you look at the bar on the right-hand side, it shows the CASA ratio. It shows the decline of CASA ratio in this half. But if you look at the number of CASA accounts we have acquired in this half year, you can see that the growth in CASA acquisition is 115% higher compared to last year half year. So that means, though in volume, our FDR or term deposit has increased, but we are still acquiring CASA accounts in numbers. So that shows the confidence of our customer with City Bank, and it also shows the governance and the brand image of the City Bank in the market. You can see also the Citytouch volume, which is the number one mobile app in the country, has also increased by 38%. So it indicates that for the time being, our interest cost has increased, but with time, our cost of deposit will come down as per our plan, because we are acquiring CASA account. We are maintaining relationship with our customer. So gradually we can adjust this higher cost of deposit with more reasonable rates. Here you can see the movement of interest, income, cost of deposit and spread. Blue line represent yield on advance, which you can see that it has increased from 9.8% to 10.4%. That means 60 basis point has increased. Red line represents cost of deposit, which increased from 4.8% to 5.5%. That means 70 basis point has increased. So cost of deposit increased more than the yield on advance. So that's why the spread has decreased little bit from 5% to 4.8%. But we'll show you how we have recovered this additional cost. This is the slide which explains how we have recovered the additional cost in deposit by investing in treasury bill and bond and other investment, which help us to recover the additional cost from deposit. Here we can see that the volume in investment has increased by 24% from BDT 138.7 billion to BDT 171.9 billion. But investment income has increased by almost 192, almost 200%. So it has increased from BDT 5.6 billion to BDT 16.5 billion. The income has come from treasury bill and bond through interest income, capital gain and other investment. So whatever additional cost that will be incurred for deposit, the whole amount has been recovered from investment income. Then export has increased by 12.8%. Well, you have seen that the country's export has increased by around 8%. So again, we have attained higher growth in export, which has reached $1.6 billion. Import has increased to $1.7 billion with 15.4%. So our country's import has increased around 4% to 5%. So our growth is much higher. But the income has decreased because, this year, the foreign exchange income has decreased drastically. Last year, it has decreased by 30%. So because of that, this decline of foreign exchange income, the overall commission and fees income has declined. But other than foreign exchange income, our commission income from trade business has increased. So to strengthen our trade business, which is one of the focus area of this bank, we have launched online real-time trade solution for our customer. Our customer can have 24x7 trade solution from us, which is fully integrated with our core banking system and SWIFT system. Among private commercial bank, we are the first bank in the country which has launched this kind of solution. As you know, the country is dominated by trade business. We are heavily involved in export and import business. This system will facilitate our customer to have a real-time solution, which will actually help us to improve our trade business in coming days. Now we are coming back to other numbers. Credit card business is another area of City Bank we are proud of. We are still the leader in the market in credit card. The base has increased by 7% and reached 727,000 customer. Credit card bill business has also increased by 7%, reached BDT 26 billion. Credit card income has also increased, but not that much because we have actually reduced some rates. This increase in credit card member will actually ensure a continuity of growth in credit card income. Altogether, the revenue has increased by 25% on a solo basis and on a consolidated basis, 24%. Because of the high growth in investment income and consistent growth in interest income, the revenue growth, we have attained very high growth in revenue. The revenue has increased from BDT 17.8 billion to BDT 20.2 billion on a solo basis. It shows that we still managing very high growth in revenue. After revenue, we are showing you the operating expense. Operating expense, which has also increased by 23.8%, little bit lower than the revenue growth. It has increased from BDT 7.9 billion to BDT 9.8 billion. The staff expense has increased by 32.3%. Major reason for this higher growth in staff cost is that we have restructured our salary to reward actually our high-performing employees and also to motivate the whole team. As we have been doing consistently well in last few years, and we want to retain all the talents. Around 28%-30% level of salary structure happened in last year, and because of that, this cost has increased. Almost around 40% of the total increase has actually come from salary structure. The other comes from the new recruitment. We are expanding our branches, sub-branches, small segment, digital initiatives, and also extending our risks divisions, and also IT divisions. We are hiring a lot of people. Because of these two reasons, the staff cost has increased by 32%. Other expense, operating expense, has also increased by 13%. Not that much, but still we are investing in IT and other infrastructure development. After deducting operating cost from the revenue, the operating profit has increased by 24% from BDT 10.3 billion to BDT 12.9 billion. This is operating profit. Actually, you know that represents one of the key figure for any bank. Here you can see that still we are maintaining 24% growth in operating profit in this tough situation. We are also maintaining cost-to-income ratio at the rate of 43%, which is also a big success for the bank that after increasing salary cost, our cost-income ratio still remains same compared to last year. The main challenge in the industry is the NPL. There are a few reasons for the increase of NPL. Definitely, the political situation change has implication on the NPL. Of the NPL and other global issues and long domestic issues. Like, you are aware that the industry has faced FX crisis, foreign exchange crisis, for last 2 years, which has also impact on our customer. Because of all three issues, the NPL ratio and volume has increased. You can see that provision for this half is BDT 6.5 billion, which was BDT 4.3 billion last year. But in first quarter, we have charged BDT 2.6 billion. So the provision charge has increased by 50% compared to last year. NPL volume has increased from BDT 16.5 billion, which was the NPL position beginning of this year or close of the last year, which has increased to BDT 24.1 billion. So ratio has increased to 4.8%, but in March, first quarter, our NPL ratio has risen to 5.7%. We could reduce the NPL in volume and in percentage also, with recovery initiative. Also, most important thing is that our provision coverage ratio was 106% at the end of last year, which reduced to 74.6% at the end of first quarter. Again, we have improved to 92%. That means, out of this BDT 6.5 billion provision charge, we are adding additional provision against the risky portfolio. That is why actually we are showing our movement. We are building additional provision to manage this credit risk. This slide shows that we have four subsidiaries which are generating profit, but the subsidiary, especially in capital market, that is City Brokerage and City Capital, they have some loss from their portfolio because of the various situation of the capital market. But you have noticed that gradually the market is turning around. With that, they will recover their loss within a short time. But till the end of half year, we had to make some provision against their portfolio. But other subsidiaries, one in Hong Kong, another in Malaysia, they are earning profit, though not in big number. So after consolidation, our net profit has reached to BDT 3.1 billion, which was BDT 2.4 billion last year. So in profit after tax, the growth is still 20.7%. We think that still is quite a healthy growth in profitability, which actually covered all the risk of the bank against our credit risk and also covering the market risk. Out of this profit, our ROE is around 12.4% on a solo basis. On a console basis, 12.75%. ROA is 0.8%, which was also 0.84% last year. Which is better than last year. On a solo basis also, ROE also better compared to last year. Earning per share is also showing good growth on a solo basis. It was 3.5 and it is now 4.47. Book value has also increased from BDT 27.5 to BDT 35.12. Capital position is still healthy, though it has reduced from 2024, but we have other capital plans, so it will improve a lot. But still, we are holding 14.8% capital adequacy ratio, which is quite healthy. Also, we are one of the few banks in the country who are both rated by Moody's and our leading credit company, CRAB, in Bangladesh. We are attaining the highest level credit rating that is possible for any bank in the country. Moody's B2 rating is the highest rating for the country. AAA by CRAB is also the highest rating in the country. Both Moody's has highlighted our sound capital base, strong profitability, strong liquidity, and especially our capacity to raise deposits. They have highlighted these strengths. CRAB has highlighted that we have additional provision to cover risk. They have highlighted our governance structure, considered as a very strong one. They have also highlighted strength of our channel to give financial service and also to acquire business. Then I am highlighting some initiative about digital banking, which is the future. City Bank is the first bank in the country who has launched Google Pay. Within a month we have added 30,000 customers, and the transaction volume already reached BDT 25 million. I think this will be a major digital initiative for the bank. Here, you can see that other digital initiative of the bank, how it is growing. Citytouch, already I have told you that this is the number one mobile bank in the country. Still, we are observing 38% growth. In half year, the volume was BDT 603 billion. Number of transaction is 16 million in 6 months. We are having around 850,000 customer. City Bank is the first bank in the country who has launched digital banking, and still the only bank in the country who is offering this kind of nano digital lending. Ticket size is around $200. We have already disbursed BDT 29 billion. Most importantly, we have added more than 1 million customers through digital platform. We have a smart IVR and call center, so it is giving service to millions of customers. CityLife is internet banking for our corporate customer. The transaction volume has increased by 42%. We are also engaging customers, and potential customers, especially young generation, through internet platform, through digital platform. For example, we are tracking how many customers are checking our website. You can see. There are millions of customers actually check through Instagram, Facebook, are engaged with City Bank, which is actually the future for the City Bank. Then, I will end for the time being with this slide. We are very happy to share this wonderful achievement of City Bank. City Bank again has been recognized as top sustainable bank in the country, and we achieved this recognition from Bangladesh Bank for the fifth consecutive year. This sustainable financing is not only about just green banking or CSR activities. It also covers the fundamental strength of the bank, which comprises of all the core ratios and also our service coverage capacity. It is a 360 degree actually assessment done by Central Bank, and which also give emphasis definitely on green initiative and sustainable banking. We are very proud to say that we are only probably 2 bank in the country who is actually consistently having this very high rating from the Central Bank. Now I am handing over this presentation to our CRO, who is also champion of the sustainable banking, who will explain more about sustainable banking. Over to our Firoz. Thank you, Mahbub. Dear respective audience, asalamwalekum and very good afternoon. Mahbub already presented about our core banking performance. Now I will show our key performance and sustainability. Firstly, I will discuss about the green finance disbursement. Green finance disbursement, including the financing in renewable energy efficiency, ETP, green factory, and so on. We disbursed BDT 3,340 crore in green finance in the first half of 2025, whereas the Central Bank target was BDT 1,000 crore. First half of last year, our total disbursement was BDT 1,280 crore, while Bangladesh Bank target was BDT 215 crore. Year on year, our green financing disbursement growth is 165%. Sustainable finance. Sustainable finance means the financing that ensure the environmental social governance compliance. The sustainable finance disbursement in the first half of 2025 was BDT 26,700 crore, while Bangladesh Bank target was BDT 8,210 crore. Last year in first half, our total disbursement was almost BDT 20,000 crore against our target of BDT 4,500 crore. Year on year in sustainable finance growth is 33%. Next slide, Amin. Next slide, yeah. Alongside financing, we are actively reducing our carbon emission of our client operation and our own operation. We have joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, as you know, of United Nations as the first bank of Bangladesh. As part of it, we have measured our carbon emission for the scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3, and we disclose it in our website. To reduce carbon emissions, the first half of this year, we financed 100 MW solar and 60 MW wind farm project, which is the largest wind farm in the Bangladesh. Our total disbursement in the renewable energy was BDT 220 crore. We also financing BDT 800 crore in the energy efficient machineries and BDT 140 crore in green building and factories. In order to reduce carbon footprint from our internal operation, we install solar rooftop to our 39 solar power branches, 33 RATM and 23 agent outlets. Next slide. It is already discussed by the Maoubhih, that City Bank has been rated as the top sustainable bank for five years in a row by the Central Bank. We are also awarded the best sustainable bank in this first half of this year by the SDG Brand Champion Award. We achieve international recognition from Bankers Magazines, Sustainability Magazine, DEAL and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others. If you would like to know more about our sustainability effort, please visit our website for our sustainability report. Thank you, everyone. Now I am handing over to Maoubhih. Actually, why we have shared our sustainable financing initiative, with us, we have also Mr. Asif, who started this initiative and achieved a lot during his tenure. Sustainable financing is become one of the pillar of the City Bank, and we believe in it. Our CRO, when CRO looks after sustainable financing, the whole thing becomes sustainable. Every member of our management believes in sustainable banking and financing. One of the major contributor of business, which is wholesale banking, they are also leading from front to improve our sustainable financing more in coming days. It is a tremendous teamwork and everybody in this organization actually aligned with this objective. Here also, I am sharing another thing that, not only just financial activities, City Bank is very much caring about the main resource of the bank, that is the human resource. So we have also launched these six pillars, which ensures the continuity of City Bank, because we are just trying to build a good leadership and quality resource and happy resource. One of our strategy of the bank is to create happy employees. City Cares ensures proper care, proper salary structure, other medical facilities, other care for employees. City Innovates encourage employees to be innovative. In our performance appraisal systems, we give emphasis on innovation and process development. City Leads actually creates leader for taking this bank to the next level. We have very strong management training program and other talent management program. City Careers also ensures the transparency in career path and the progress. City Enriches, actually another pillar for the bank to improve the knowledge level and the professionalism of the employees and also maintain proper governance, culture in the organization. City Commits, we are very much committed about the sustainability of the bank and the community. These are the pillar we believe in, and we are following it very religiously. Next I have just two more slides. Here actually I am showing you few recent recognition that we have achieved. One is from SME Finance Forum from IFC. We have got award as Best Financier for Women Entrepreneurs. Then we have been recognized as Best Retail Bank by Bangladesh Brand Forum. This is very strong, prestigious forum in Bangladesh. Also our procurement division also is one of the testament that every corner of the bank is serious about sustainable financing through their procurement system. They have also helped very CSR related activities of the bank. They have been also recognized by their International Procurement Institute as best initiative to deliver social value through procurement. City Bank has won Best Bank in Bangladesh by FinanceAsia for the ninth time. Also Mastercard also recognized us for various achievement in card business. With this, I would like to end my presentation. Thank you all. Thank you very much, Mr. Mami, sir, and Mr. Firoz, sir, for your insightful presentation on the financial performance. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. The first question is, cost of fund of City Bank has significantly increased. Why City Bank is giving very high deposit rate, whereas inflation has reduced? Sir, let me answer this question. End of last year, we could foresee that policy rate would be increased by Central Bank to contain inflation. Because of the rate hike in treasury bill and bond, naturally, customer will move to higher yield saving instrument. To retain the deposit and also to acquire new customer, we had to increase the deposit, and this is a cycle of any banking industry, when actually after lower interest rate scenario, interest rate moves up. When it moves up, you have to adjust your cost of deposit either to retain or to ensure growth. We have ensured growth by increasing cost of deposit. We have invested very successfully in alternative investment area. That is a very much short-term strategy, where actually we have also succeeded. The result also shows that we have acquired more deposit and we have deployed it very profitably in investment. Gradually it will be adjusted with the adjustment of the policy rate. When inflation will come down, policy rate will come down, deposit cost will come down. Accordingly, everything will come down and, again, we'll have much higher spread in coming days. Thank you, sir. Moving on to the next question. If Bangladesh Bank begins reducing benchmark interest rates, what impact do you expect on your profitability? Again, actually, I think it's the same question. I think same kind of question, answer is same. The profitability definitely will improve. Asif can also add something regarding this. Assalamualaikum and good evening to everyone, all the audience. Basically, we will be agile as the market actually changes. We will respond according to the market. Our CFO has already said that we maintain the spread despite having a hike in the deposit rate and also we could earn a better yield from our investment and assets. If the rates come down, definitely when the deposit rate will come down, our cost of fund will also go down. Definitely, there will be pressure on the interest rate because the market is very competitive. Now, there is no cap, there is no, I think, floor for the interest rates. The market competition will fix where the equilibrium point of the deposit and the interest rate of the loan will be settled. Thank you. Thank you, sir, for your answer. Moving on to the next question. With the banking sector under stress, how are you managing credit quality in high-risk sectors? I think Asif, Firuz and Asif both can answer. CRO first. CRO first, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the good question. Asking for the good question. Definitely, nowadays, this is the most risky or most, I think, challenging for the perspective of the banking side. A lot of changes happened in the policy level in the last year. Because of this year, the effects comes on the CL. The NPL started initially, it was, I think, before this present policy. Initially, this was the NPL started from the nine months for the term loan. Now it has come down to three months. It takes time to the customers to adopt it and to accommodate it. That is why the result of the first half of the industry is the NPL increases. We take a lot of initiatives to reduce this NPL. Definitely, we set our risk appetite and the sector specific strategies, where we will go and how we will go. Also we change our underwriting standard according to this, and the parameter of the underwriting. Also, I think the strong monitoring from the side of the credit as well as the business side, that we can manage the quality of the portfolio. Rashed. Basically, adding with Chief Risk Officer, when the risk appetite is set with a joint consultation with the risk and the business team, then as per the Bangladesh Bank regulation, it goes to the board and get approved, and then it is submitted to Bangladesh Bank. I think this is a commitment to manage the risk and the return. Then we keep on monitoring and the risk team is very good at that. They keep on actually informing us how far we are from our risk appetite and if we are reaching to our appetite level or the risk limit level, they give us early flag. This entire system is automated. That is one of the advantages that we have. We can have it on daily basis. Movement of asset in certain area, which is monitored, if we reach this ceiling, then we gradually slow down the growth in that. If we need, the market scenario changes. Then as we see, we are agile, then we need to change with the risk appetite, we do it accordingly in line with the market opportunities, risk, and the overall scenario. This way we are growing, and we managed to keep asset quality within certain standard. However, we know we are passing through one of the most challenging time, from last year to this year. Although the industry suffered a lot more than what we have suffered, we have grown in business as well to compensate the risk. Our import bill was more than the industry growth. So was the export. Both are double digit, while the import and export of the country is single digit. We are trying to cover it up so that we can compensate the provisions from NPL is covered from our additional revenue from the additional business. Thank you. To just add some additional information with that. Also, we estimated before the beginning of the year that the risk would be higher in 2025. Naturally, we understand that after fallout of a very long regime, there would be a big impact in the market, and that's why you can see that our investment concentration has gone to treasury bill and bond. Naturally, probably most of the banks have done this, and this is the part of the banking business. The character of the banking business is like this. When financial industry has risked, they move to more safer zone. That's why we have acquired a high cost deposit and we invested in treasury bill bond, which is less risk. With a less risk and definitely the return is quite high. So we have nicely balanced our benefit position. Now, gradually the risk level of the market will reduce and as our CRO and head of also said that customers are gradually adjusting with new repayment pattern. They used to repay after 9 months. Now they have to repay within 3 months. So they are also adjusting their cash flow. When they will adjust their cash flow, definitely we'll go for more growth in normal business, our regular business. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for your insightful answers. Moving on to the next question. With sustainable finance and CSR performance under regulatory spotlight, how is ESG integrated into lending and governance strategy? Thank you. Thank you again. I think that is a good question. Definitely. As Mahbub has said that as City Bank, actually our DNA is set to comply the ESG in our in-house as well as our lending portfolio. Of the lending portfolio, you know that with like analysis of the scorecard of any kind of rating, and we initially for the other analysis, we also analyzed the environmental social risk. By using the ESDD, we have the environmental social risk management policy, which is related with the lending. We also signed, I already mentioned, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance of the United Nations, where we committed to reduce our carbon emission. That also we incorporate in our sustainable finance policy. By incorporating that sustainable finance policy, where we will go in future and how much carbon will be reduced and on what sector will be reduced. That means, actually, this overall ESG now is linked with our lending guidelines and we follow our overall ESG compliance. It is also mentioned about that we digitalized our ESG process. That is environmental, social and residual diligence. That is including, it started from the business unit. Business unit, I think they fill out the ESG questionnaire. Then it is reviewed by our project inspection and assessment team, who also visited the customers and see the compliance of the environmental and social risk, and also how much they are generating carbon and what is our finance carbon emission. CRM has approved this. If there is any kind of action taken or action required for the future, they search for the corrective action. The corrective action also follow, is reviewed and monitored by the sustainable finance team as well as the credit team. Thank you. Also, we are publishing integrated financial reporting. Also, we are covering our social contribution, especially the CSR. We are going to have much better CSR policy in coming year. Also, in terms of governance, probably you are aware that the governance structure of the bank is very strong and which is also being highlighted by our rating companies. IFC is the single largest shareholder of the bank. So, they also ensure good governance practice in the bank. So, from the shareholder point of view, from the management point of view, we have a good governance practice. Like in management, we have two tier management team, actually three tier management team, senior management team. Then we have management committee. We have external management committee also. So, in terms of governance, from board to management, we have structured quite well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for your wonderful answers. Moving on to the next question. How do you plan to scale agent banking and digital channels to capture rural and SME markets while managing cybersecurity risks? We are expanding very cautiously in agent banking. We are not expanding very aggressively. We need to expand the agent banking network because our digital banking, along with the digital expansion, banking expansion, we also need a physical presence. It will be like physical kind of thing, physical for digital expansion. In agent banking, we have also restructured agent banking platform. The security system has been beefed up, with two factor authentication system for agent banking system, and like for every agent, every transaction at the agent banking level will down through two factor OTP system. Once OTP is reached to the customer, then they can carry out the transaction. It ensures a proper security. They use thumb impression for doing the transaction, and after every transaction, every customer is updated with SMS. Immediately they get updated if there is any transaction. Actually extended the security system at agent banking point. Also, for expanding our digital banking, we have also gone through all the certification process. That ensures the cybersecurity of our digital platform. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to the next question. What is the outlook for your investment income going forward? Outlook is actually, it depends on the Central Bank policy. But if you look at the interest rate curve, you can actually get your own answer because the trend shows that the curve will come down, and that will ensure good return from our current investment in coming days. Thank you, sir. The next question is: if trade tensions persist, for example, new tariffs, how will it impact Forex income and trade financing? Asset. Yeah. This is still You know all that is still under negotiation. So, we can conclude how the outcome will come. We are following closely about this tariff negotiation. So we cannot speculate now. I think the negotiation with our neighboring country is also going on to relieve some. But the positive side is we hope that the tariff which each has fixed will come down. That is the hints we are getting from different media. So nothing concrete came from the government side. We are waiting for that. However, the efficiency that the RMG, the apparel sector, and our textile sector has achieved in last more than 40 years, I think this remains as an added advantage. Because by us having a very long-term relationship with these manufacturers, we have been consistently delivering the quality and also the time and the efficiency and the quality of our chain is one of the best in the world. We are the second largest exporter of the apparel in the globe. This, I think the skillset will remain as an advantage. We are looking forward to how the negotiation goes on. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Moving on to the last question of this session. Have you implemented the 90 DPD classification rule from June 2024 or April 2025 onwards? We are 100% following Bangladesh Bank regulations. It is in both the phases. All the reflections that you see in the NPL are reflection of the new rule. That is why some of the NPL pressure came out. Already our acting CEO and CFO have said that the customers are adjusting with the new trend. I think it is a matter of time. I think at least we can say in the City Bank, the asset quality will improve in the future. Thank you. Thank you, sir. 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 this 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 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 all. Goodbye, and see you again.