Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Mundhra. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rico. Good evening, everyone, and a warm welcome to all the participants. It's our pleasure to welcome you all to discuss Bandhan Bank's business and financial performance for the quarter ending December 2023. We will take this opportunity to update you on the recent developments in the industry as well as on Bandhan Bank during the quarter. To discuss all this in detail, we have with us our founder and Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh; Executive Director, Mr. Ratan Kesh; Interim CFO, Mr. Abhijit Ghosh; myself, Vikash Mundhra, Head of Investor Relations, along with the other senior management team of the bank. We'll be happy to provide you with any clarity if required from the current quarter numbers and the way forward. Now, I would like to request our founder, MD and CEO, Mr.
Shekhar Ghosh, to brief you all about our bank's operational and financial performance along with the developments for the quarter ending December 2023. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Vikash. Namaskar and warm welcome to all of you. I am presenting to you. This is the Q3 financial year 2024 result which the bank has been performed. The bank has been performed very good in this quarter, and this quarter has also been one of the important quarters for the bank as in this quarter because the bank went under new CBS platform from the old CBS platform. For that reason, we have a little bit delayed to publish the result instead of third week of the next month of the quarter to today. So all our systems and processes are now fully stable and working under the new CBS, and it has been helped to the bank to further grow in a different way. Coming to the advances, let me now move on to business numbers.
Despite the various global uncertainties, India's macro parameters remain strong. RBI expects the real GDP growth 7%, CPI inflation 4.5% during financial year 2025. The favorable macro backdrop should continue to help the momentum in the Indian BFSI sector in the coming quarter. During the quarter three financial year 2024, our Bank Bandhan Bank's overall advances grown 18.6% year-on-year and 7.7% quarter-on-quarter. The growth in the loan book reflects an uptick in demand across the asset verticals, which now stands at a total advance book of INR 116,000 crore. Sorry. EEB vertical added 600,000 new borrowers during quarter three financial year 2024 as the EEB portfolio increased 7.5% quarter-on-quarter and 10% year-on-year. Growth in the case of retail assets and commercial banking continued to be impressive.
The retail loan book, other than the housing loans, grew 70% year-on-year and 15% quarter-on-quarter. The commercial banking vertical also grown very good, which is 60% year-on-year and 9% quarter-on-quarter. The housing finance book has registered a growth of more than 6%. We know that during the quarter, we sold the housing loan NPAs, which is INR 720 crore, to ARC. Adjusting to that, the growth of this book has been above 9%. In line with our medium-term strategic objectives, the share of secured assets as part of our total loan book continues to increase. It reached around 44.5% in the quarter three financial year 2024, up from 44% in the last quarter. We expect to have nearly 50% of our portfolio will be secured assets by financial year 2026. Coming to this, the liabilities.
On the liabilities side, total deposit has been now reached INR 117,000 crore as on December 2023 and grown 15% year-on-year and faster than the industry growth. As we focus on granular retail deposits, our total retail deposit and retail term deposit grown by 18% and 22% year-on-year, respectively. The retail-to-total deposit ratio, which was at around 69% in last December 2022, moved above 71% by December 2023. CASA deposit, which stands at INR 42,413 crore as of the end of quarter three financial year 2024, has shown an impressive growth of 14% year-on-year. CASA ratio stands at a healthy 36.1% despite the tight liquidity in the market. Microfinance customers continue to contribute just about 4% of our total deposit. Customers continue to respond to their trust in the bank.
The bank has added above 9 lakh customers in this quarter, and the number of liability customers increased by 14% year-on-year, which have been helped us to future retail deposit growth will be likely to grow, which we expected. Collection. Let us know about the trend in collection and asset quality. The first, the collection. The bank's overall collection efficiency remained healthy. The bank's overall collection efficiency, excluding NPA, stood stable at 99% for the December quarter of 2023. Asset quality. On the asset quality front, the bank has seen a stable quarter. In fact, we have seen green shoots in several parameters, like gross NPA ratio improved at 7% from the last quarter, which was at 7.3%, 30 basis points in the decrease. And if we compare to this last year, the same quarter, it was at 7.2% and 20 basis points reduced.
Net NPA stood at 2.2% in quarter three 2024 versus 2.3% in the last quarter. Gross slippage during quarter three financial year 2024 was INR 1,390 crores, which over INR 600 crores, which is 45%, was seen during the month of October, reflecting some of the disruption due to CBS system migration and immediately followed by the festival season. However, monthly average net during November and December was much contained at around INR 380 crores per month, not only sharply lower than in October but also better than run rate during the previous several quarters, even the couple of years. We expect the run rate to further fall down in the current quarter.
There has been improvement across the buckets in the EEB loan. If we see that our SMA-0 book in the previous quarter was around INR 963 crores, which now has come to INR 805 crores, which is 1.5%.
If I come to the similar in SMA-1, which book in the September quarter was around INR 609 crore and reduced and came to INR 567 crore, which is 0.9%. Likewise, our SMA-2, which is the book in the September quarter, was around INR 688 crore, which has now reduced to INR 526 crore, which is 1%. If I see this three SMA-0,1,2 together, it has come to 3.4%, and last quarter it was 4.8%, and last to last quarter it was 5.5%. So gradually, we've seen that the quarter-on-quarter basis, the slippage has come down, which has been going to impact positively our NPA or slippage has coming down. The financial year 2024 book, consisting of all loans disbursed from April 2023 to December 2023, is turning out to be a strong one. The gross NPA of those book ratio of financial year 2024 book stands at 0.11%.
Means whatever loan we are disbursed in EEB in this financial year, their total NPA has come to INR 35 crore, which is the percentage which is 0.11%, which was in last year is 0.5%. Coming to this, this is the point we have been seeing that the trend of the slippage and recovery and the NPA percentage of the new book, which have been shows that the quality of the portfolio are increasing, and the reduced of this, the risk-based portfolio, which is the future will be likely to better. We see that the growth of the business with a quality portfolio. Profitability. The bank has registered a net profit of INR 733 crore during the quarter financial year 2024 against a net profit of INR 291 crore a year ago. This was a year-on-year growth of 152% in the profit.
Our net interest income in quarter three financial year 2024 reached INR 2,525 crore compared to the last year, the same quarter INR 2,080 crore, which registered the growth of year-over-year 21%. Our net interest margin improved to 7.2% compared to the last quarter, 7.2%. If I compare to the last year, the same quarter from 6.5% increased to this 7.2%. Total credit cost has been stable at 2.5% in quarter three financial year 2024. The bank delivered on ROA of 1.9% and ROE of 14% in quarter three financial year 2024. Coming to this, the branch and digital expansion. The bank continues with the emphasis on its branch network. This quarter, we have added 26 branches. Today, the bank has a branch presence in 35 out of 36 states and union territories of the country. I also want to highlight how our performance in digital banking has improved further.
95% of our total general banking transactions are happening digitally. Growth in digital registration is up 34% year-over-year. Our digital transaction volume increased 36% year-over-year. Our UPI transaction increased 39% year-over-year. The bank has been empaneled by states like Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra for state government business. It will be helped to the bank to mobilize more deposits. The state of Assam and Meghalaya have authorized the bank to integrate the Electronic Government Receipt Accounting System, which is called the EGRAS, a single online collection medium for all tax as well as non-tax revenue, which will be also helped to the bank to increase their revenue. New senior leadership talent. We have recently received the approval from RBI for the appointment of the second executive director, Mr. Rajinder Babbar. Our new CFO will also soon be onboarded.
Both of these, the senior management member will join us soon. We also have Sri Santosh G. Nair, who has joined us from HDFC Group as a head of consumer lending and mortgages sitting right with me. And I find out on that these all people are leaders, very senior and experienced. Join with us, with our old Executive Director, Ratan Kumar Kesh, and other of my colleagues will be strengthening the bank's senior management team to reach the goal of the bank across the country. Conclusion from my side, we expect the growth momentum across major business verticals to continue in the Q4 of the financial year, which we saw in the trend in the last three quarters. And also, it will be helped us to show the trend of that quality of the portfolio.
Of late, we have successfully completed the migration into the new CBS and have initiated several steps to boost cross-sale and branch-led sales to grow the retail assets and liabilities portfolio and also to increase productivity for employees supported by our digital and analytical initiatives. Overall, we are well on our way to achieving long-term strategic goals of portfolio and geographical diversification. I wish you and your family all the very best. Thank you. And thank you to all of you to continue your trust and the support to our bank. Now, I am requested to my Executive Director, Sri Ratan Kesh, if you would like to give some more points, which you would like to know about it. Thank you. Please, Ratan.
Thank you, sir. I once again thank all of you for joining the call. I believe some of you may have questions on our CGFMU portfolio and ongoing audit. I would like to clarify a few points relating to that. First of all, let me put some statistics here. CGFMU was taken entirely for FY 2021, which is the COVID period. Neither before nor after we have taken any CGFMU cover.
The total portfolio under which we have taken a cover was INR 20,800 crores under CGFMU, and we disbursed nearly INR 1,950 crores under ECLGS. Out of the total portfolio of INR 22,750 crores, combining CGFMU and ECLGS, nearly 85% of the total portfolio, which is roughly INR 19,000 crores, have been repaid by the customers over a period of time. The remaining amount, which is around INR 3,600 crores as of December 2023, is sitting as stress book in my current portfolio, and we are carrying a provision of more than 89% on that portfolio.
The maximum eligible amount, if you know as part of the CGFMU scheme that a bank or an institution can claim insurance cover is 15% of the total insured amount. For us, on the INR 20,800 crore, it turns out to be INR 3,100 crore. Our total claim put together of first tranche and second tranche is roughly around INR 2,200 crore, which is significantly below the prescribed or, let's say, maximum eligible that the scheme would have suggested. So far, we have claimed and received an amount of INR 917 crore in December 2022. Subsequently, in the Q2 of FY 2024, we made an additional claim of INR 1,296 crore. So the total claim amount, as I said, is much lower than the maximum eligible limit in the schemes. Now, we continue our recovery process from these accounts.
For example, in the first tranche of INR 917 crore that we received last year from NCGTC, we have already recovered INR 214 crore, which is more than 20% of the claimed amount. As part of the scheme, we have set that aside for refunding to NCGTC. NCGTC also had done an initial sample audit subsequent to putting our second claim of INR 1,296 crore. The agency made certain observations in the audit, and we believed that some of these observations were inadequate and rather inappropriate, and therefore, we clarified our stand on those. However, NCGTC, before deciding on the final matter, they decided to conduct a detailed audit to validate our submission. The bank is fully cooperating and submitting all the documents requested by the audit agency. The audit is currently underway.
We, as a management, expect the results of the audit to be completed in the next few months, and we are fully confident that we will recover the money from CGFMU. Thank you.
Thank you, Ratan.
Thank you. Riko, you can start the Q&A, please.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mahrukh Adajania from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Hi. Good evening. My first question is on the CGFMU audit.
So the amount involved is very small, as you just explained, which was helpful. But is this a forensic audit like some media articles say, or just a normal detailed financial audit?
See, look, our understanding as management is that forensics can be conducted by certain entities. We don't want to, beyond a point, claim this and create a problem for ourselves. But the point is that subsequent to a sample audit, we validated and submitted our submission, and therefore, a detailed audit is what is being conducted. But as far as NCGTC, they claim that it's a forensic audit, which is adequately published by them in their website. So we will say it is a forensic audit. Having said that, we have our views as to who is allowed to conduct a forensic audit.
Okay. Got it, sir. Yes. That was my doubt as well.
Then, sir, just in terms of the SME pool, so obviously, the EEB SME pool has declined. But where do we see it settling, right, because the slippages? First of all, what would be the EEB slippage?
If we see that the slippage of EEB in this quarter, it's INR 993 crore out of INR 1,390 crore. And I also mentioned in that point, the 45% of this amount of the slippage of EEB has slipped in the month of October. We are transformed and given some holidays are more in the time of festival. For that reason, slippage, you have not liked to stop. It automatically is going on back. So this is the point. But if you go to the next month onwards, and this is then so much on the month-on-month basis, so low, we have not seen that last two, three years, that much of that.
So it has given the comfort to us. This has been calmed down. And second point, I also mentioned, whatever the portfolio, we are shown that the EEB portfolio, as in the year of 2023-24, we disbursed the loan, 85% of the total EEB book is lies, which are disbursed in 2023-24. And this portfolio quality is so good, it has been showing that NPA only 0.11%.
Got it, sir. Sir, I'm sorry, just one clarification that you expect the low slippage that you saw in November, December to continue in the next few months also?
It will be again calmed down on that.
Okay. Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. To ask a question, please press star and one.
The next question is from the line of Yuvraj Choudhary from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.
Sorry, Mr. Chaudhary. May I request you to use your handset, sir? Your audio is muffled.
Hello. Now is it clear?
Yes, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Please go ahead.
Sir, good evening, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, now with the CBS migration done, so could we expect some OPEX levels to come down? Is there any target too we have on OPEX-to-asset ratio?
So, if you see that the OPEX-to-asset ratio, we are predicted on that at the 3.5%-3.7%. So if we see that in the Q1, it was 3.5%. Q2 has come 3.7%. Again, the Q3 has come to the 3.6%.
So we say that it will be like to continue in this line because of that, the loss of IT, if you see that the intervention happened in the bank for the future growth, it is that two types of costs have come. One cost has come operational, so it will continue. We cannot reduce. But other cost is a capital cost, which has been like to make as in every year, book some of the cost on that, depreciation, whatever we say that. So that both will be like to impact a little bit because but not it will be like to increase the more than 3.7% on that.
Sure, sir. Thanks. Sir, on margins, so NIM was stable at 7.2% on a sequential basis despite strong growth due to cost pressures. So could we see NIM at the same level in the near term, or could we see some improvement in NIM?
If you see that the prediction of that, the NIM, there is two parts. One part is the cost of fund. So whatever the cost of fund has been increased, I feel that it isn't very good way has come on that. And as for the yesterday, the regulators' prediction, so it cannot be like to further like to grow. So that it will be if it isn't fixed on that, in the future, it will be again calmed down. And second, my point on that, whatever that the cost of the bank is a means on that, when the RICS portfolio has come down, slippage has come down, automatically, it will be also help to the bank to better way to maintain on that.
But I am not very much say that it will be very long-term can be like to say, but I say that this quarter, 7-7.5, we can be like to do. And in March, we have that strategic meeting. We can analyze further on that. And again, we will be like to communicate to all of you on that what we can be like to pass on. But we have said that the same line will be like to continue.
Sure, sir. And sir, last question would be, sir, some color on a portfolio in Punjab would be helpful. What would be our AUM there, collection efficiency, if you can throw some color on that?
So Punjab point of view, we have not very much more in the portfolio in KRS. And so we will give the number.
We have given the number to a small portfolio, but we will give the number. Because it's a small portfolio, I can say that in that very INR 714 crore on that entire book. Entire book? Out of a total book of INR 58,000-odd crore, INR 714 crore is the Punjab portfolio.
Okay, sir. That was answered.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Mohit Jain from Tara Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Hello? Hello? Yeah. Good evening, sir.
Yes. Good evening, Mohit.
Sir, I just wanted to understand on this slippage part because of the system migration. Sir, we have this weekly collection model. So when this transition happened, how did it exactly affect the slippage?
Was it like we did not have the group meeting for, let's say, a particular period of time? Just a quick question, sir. Overall, the increase in GNPA is more in the rest of India portfolio. I think in West Bengal and Assam, it has come down. So is it also that the transition affected the collection in the other states and not the Eastern states where our focus was higher?
So there are two points, Mohit. One is that on 3rd October, we migrated to the new system. Given that we are migrating on that day, that day we declared as a holiday. It means we wanted to ensure that the people are able to understand the system, which means that day was a collection holiday. But for our portfolio, it will keep moving the DPD. So for the pool, it will keep moving. That's one.
Second, first few days, people got used to the new tab, new way of looking at the demand, and then go and collect it. So there are certain challenges in terms of understanding it. As much as we tried to train everyone, but slowly, they could quickly understand. Therefore, you see significantly better November and even better in December. So that took some bit of a time. Third, of course, October, you had the festive. And you see there are a whole bunch of holidays, I think 5-7 days holiday. Holiday is for us and customers, but DPD doesn't have holidays, so that keeps moving. Those are the three broad factors.
And sir, the related part as to why the rest of India had a higher GNP and why it performed better in West Bengal and Assam, this is the reason? Yeah.
No, if you see that the industry perspective, if you see that Maharashtra is an issue and partly also UP, so that is the two. And third, specifically for us, is Manipur. You know that the issue. So that is the Manipur also partly. What happened on that in the microcredit point of view? If you look under it, this is a group-based credit. And when the group-based credit is the need to group bonding in the meeting. After the pandemic, some states, very quick, they are recovered and coming to the group meeting attendance and also bonding very good. Some states, some pocket, they are taking more time. And those areas, little bit, this slippage will happen like to see. So it will be improving by the month-on-month basis. We see that.
We are also taking very, very corrective measures, and we are a very separate team working on that. Very quick, we'll be like to come back on that.
Okay, sir. Sir, just one question, final. Sir, do we foresee any impact from the upcoming elections that will be there on the disbursement or the collection, sir?
No. No. We have not seen on that.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Ritika Dua from Bandhan AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So, thank you for the opportunity. So, firstly, we shared that going forward, the share of secured to unsecured would be 50/50. If you don't mind, what is the number today?
Today's number is in secured is 44.5. And the 55.5 is in unsecured.
Right. So, sir, just maybe you even have a new person joining on the retail and the consumer side. Either would be good to hear from you or him, sir, how are you looking to get to this journey of increasing and which would be the focus area?
Okay. I request on that our Santosh Nair , who is the head of that retail and mortgage business. He will be like to address. Please.
Hi. Good evening to all of you. See, you can hear me? I hope you can hear me.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Okay. See, the whole idea is when I joined here, there's a clear chance we want to stay focused on the affordable segment because we clearly see a demand in the affordable segment.
The only way that we can do is probably get into more geographies, probably look at our internal sourcing and internal branches where we think we have a cross-sell opportunity which we can explore, and also get into the digital way of lending across all the retail asset products and mortgages. So that way, we could surely see a progress towards what RMD mentioned and try to get it at 50%. It's early days for me now, but we are reviewing it. We have a strategy meet in the next week, 10 days, post which we will take a collective decision on how we have to move forward.
So, sir, that's helpful. And sir, just one more question. If I could just request you to reiterate the long-term guidance that you have shared on the various limited growth and the ROA and ROE. Thank you. That's it from me, sir.
We are guided on that ROA and ROE. ROE, we say that the 14%-18% ROE. And ROA, we are like to predict it on that the 2.5%-2.8%. So, Rishika, we are having our strategy meet somewhere by the end of February, right? So where we will discuss our next three-year plan. And once we do that, after that, we will share with the market participants. So please allow us one quarter more to give you about our long-term plan.
Sure, sir. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Saurabh Kumar from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Sir, just two questions. One is the SMA. If you look at the total zero-plus overdue book, that's gone up by INR 470 crore quarter-on-quarter.
I just want to know, is this your normal run rate because this book went up also by INR 230 crore in Q2 and about INR 1,100 crore in Q1? So just in terms of the zero-plus, how do you think this forward book, how much does it flow through? Or should we think about this INR 475 crore as a normal run rate from here on?
Saurabh, I believe considering the current situation and the stringent underwriting norms which we have taken place, at least INR 300 crore-INR 500 crore of addition from zero to the DPD is what we are expecting even for one or two quarters. And then we'll work out how the situation improves, and then we'll let you know. But as of now, yeah, for the next one or two quarters, yes, that's the run rate which we believe would continue.
Okay. The second is just in terms of the savings account, I mean, can you just quantify how much of the I mean, how much of it would have been wholesale savings or to retail, or it's all retail savings that has come up quarter-over-quarter? How does the savings of only 5,000 is wholesale? Just because it is only.
Only 5,000 is a wholesale saving, and the balance are the retail.
Okay. So the decline which we are seeing quarter-over-quarter is a wholesale decline?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Manish Shukla from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity. On housing finance, slide number 13, just curious, what is driving the IBPC purchases?
Because if I look at the quarter, the quarter-on-quarter increase in IBPC purchases is almost same as the fresh disbursement in housing loans. So just curious, what is driving the IBPC purchases here?
No, if you see that the IBPC purchase, this is a good opportunity also to earn some revenue from this portfolio. And this is, of course, a good tool. And that's the two major objectives on that. When the opportunities have come, we are taking that opportunities.
How would you say the yield outcomes on the two, IBPC purchases versus what you discussed on the?
I think that's a 0.75 is the net we can earn.
Okay. Moving on to liabilities, can you share the average cost of your CASA deposits?
Average? It will be slightly over 5. Give us some seconds. 5.1 to 6.1.
Okay. So if you look at liabilities mix, right, bulk of the liability growth seems to be coming from non-retail TD. Retail TD tends to be more expensive than retail TD. So in that context, I'm just trying to understand the balance sheet growth strategy. So between growth and margin, how do you look at it? Are you comfortable growing your balance sheets and funding it via non-retail TD and keeping margins where it is, or would you look at slowing growth and improving on margins?
So I'll take that. So the deposit strategy has always been focused on retail time deposits. While there are opportunities on the wholesale piece also, whenever we have found opportunities, we have taken them. And we have been very circumspect in taking clients on the wholesale front. However, the retail focus continues.
If you see the growth that we've seen on a year-by-year basis, on a retail time deposit, has been around 25%. That's reasonable growth, and that focus continues.
We're talking more from a sequential growth perspective, December over September, because that is when we've seen loan growth for you after six months.
Yeah. So we grew about 6% quarter-on-quarter on the retail bond.
And that was primarily by non-retail TD?
No, on the retail TD bid, we grew by 6%. And of course, the overall TD growth that you see, the rest of it was wholesale.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prabal from Ambit. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, Amit.
May I request you to use your handset, please? The audio is not clear.
Yes, sir. Is it better?
Yes.
Sir, my first question is on the margins. The credit-to-deposit ratio improved 300 basis points sequentially. Still, margins were stable. So had it not been for the liquidity, is it fair to assume that margins would have declined?
If you see that, of course, it is another side of this. When it will like to go to the increase that decrease the CD ratio, cost will increase. But we see that the two other things. First thing is the quality of the portfolio. It will be like to help reduce the cost. And second point on that, what if the rate today and that rate also in the future will be not long run? It will be also cost of fund will come down. And that will be like to balance gradually.
Okay. So, sir, can we increase CD ratio further because it is at 93%? So can this be further increased from here on?
No, if you see that the CD ratio last five years, we are reduced at 27%. It was in five years before, it was 127%. Now, it has come less than 100%, which is 98%. So part year, we have been reduced in the 5% and more or less around on that. So we are very strategic plan on that, how it can be like to make it in a good way and to maintain the other all ratios.
Okay. Okay. Okay. My next question will be on this mix of secured versus unsecured. So you have been guiding that we are moving more towards the secured side. So with that, the implication on the yield on advance should be on the downward side, isn't that?
So structurally, our yield on advances will only come down as we raise the share of secured in our mix. Can that be right assumption?
So, assumption is right. As we said that we will maintain so as of now, our yield and cost of deposits are moving almost in tandem. And therefore, you see that we are actually maintaining 7.2%. We said that we will maintain 7%-7.5%. But we have our strategy meeting. We will go back and go to the drawing board and really look at all parameters, balancing all the metrics that you want to target and come back with a detailed plan. Whether you'd like to compromise on some part of the NIM, etc., we will come back. But the truth is that as of now, even our retail book, 66% is secured. And those are generally high-yield products.
So we are focusing on some of those. Like Shantanu mentioned, my colleague, that we are focusing on affordable. Yield is significantly higher than, let's say, prime segment. So our focus will continue to be not compromise NIM beyond a point.
Okay. But anyway, the secured retail will be lower than the MFI yield.
That's true. That's true.
Okay. And sir, one data-keeping question. What will be the differential between non-retail term deposit and retail term deposit?
100 basis points.
Okay. So second question will be on these branches. So I just want to understand what are the nature of these branches because branch count on a year-by-year basis has increased by 30%. But other expenses are virtually flat. So our OPEX per branch has come down significantly. So what are these branches where we are having this amount of savings?
Sir, the branches are actually the standard general banking branches where we garner, starting with deposits, and then do cross-sell to the internal customers. So these are pretty much standard branches. And you see some part of the cost on even people we are deploying so that we can set up a new branch. So this is generally front-loaded to add more people. Also, in the retail portfolio and the housing portfolio, we are adding more people. And this is the investment.
And the size and shape of branches haven't changed.
Sorry?
The size and the shape of branches haven't changed.
Not really. Not really.
But then why is it a lower number?
When you go to a new market when you go to the new market, the first branch is generally a standard branch.
When you look at the second and third branch, we may wish to compromise on the size and scale of those branches. But generally, the first few branches, we are keeping it as a standard.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to one or two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Jai Mundhra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening, sir. And thanks for the opportunity. Sir, how much is the LCR for the quarter ended, liquidity coverage ratio for the bank?
142%.
Sure. And sir, in that context so sorry. So now, I think, as I mentioned earlier also, that if you see this quarter I mean, Q4 is supposed to be seasonally good in terms of AUM growth. This quarter, the growth has also revived. Now, ideally, the growth should be even higher next quarter and going by seasonality. Could that be constrained by growth in the retail term deposits? Because this quarter, retail to total deposits, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, that number has come down from 74%-71%. The deposit growth is mainly funded by non-retail term deposits. Considering what we have been hearing in the media and about RBI scams and in general tight liquidity, do you think this can impact the Q4 otherwise super strong growth seasonally that we see in a usual Q4?
Yes. Yes. So the Q4, also, the momentum that we have managed to build over the last nine-odd months on retail term deposits is expected to continue. However, having said that, opportunities that I mentioned earlier on the wholesale front will also be leveraged. And as mentioned earlier, the banks will pick up deposits and deposits, be it retail or wholesale, it will continue to leverage opportunities that are available.
Okay. Understood. So as of now, there is no you are more or less indifferent as far as growth happens, either it comes through retail deposit or wholesale deposit. As of now, do you not overly worry that that can constrain the near-term growth?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
And last housekeeping question, sir. If you have the recovery number in EEB for this quarter, I think last quarter it was INR 130 crore. The total provisions, I think, including standard, non-standard, and everything for I don't know, for the EEB of the entire bank, any.
Total provision of the bank, INR 600 crore, is aligned with the Q1, Q2, Q3 . All quarters, around INR 600 crore is a provision. But if you say that the recovery from EEB, INR 178 crore, which was in the last quarter, INR 139 crore.
Right. Understood. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Bhise from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Is it fair to assume that in terms of ARC sales, we are largely done in the near term, or do you think there could be some more for Q4?
We have not yet planned on that. If we have other plan, then we'll like to inform.
Okay. Secondly, in terms of margins, when you said that we are incrementally into secured retail, which are slightly higher-yielding products, but three years out, how do you see from a structural perspective?
We'll come back on that, Samir.
Thank you. And all the best.
Thank you, Samir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Shah from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. So just wanted to check in terms of what will be the cost of term deposits that we raise during the quarter? And was it more towards the end, and we are not seeing the impact in terms of the overall cost of deposits?
Sujoy Roy, go ahead. Sujoy, go ahead. So yeah, the cost of funds, as I mentioned on the savings bit, has actually last quarter, we've seen a decline from 5.17 to 5.06. Yeah. Cost of bulk deposits. Bulk.
Bulk. I'm just coming to that. I'm just coming to that. So overall, TD cost has, of course, increased. It has increased to about 7.4%, the overall cost of funds on the TD front. Of course, the bulk rates have, if you would be aware, have hit a higher number. And the cost that will come in, of course, will impact in the next three or four quarters also.
So yes. Slightly higher than 8%, Samir.
Okay. Higher than 8%. Slightly higher than 8%. Around eight. Yeah. Around eight. And 8.1 and.
Okay. Okay. Got it. And secondly, maybe I am not sure if you highlighted in terms of when this migration issue would quote correct. So would we see whatever incremental slippages we saw two months back, when do we see them coming back? And the rest of India GNPA, which are at 8%-odd, when do we see that stabilizing? How much time would that actually take?
Yeah. As we said, post-October, November has been in the entire slippage that you see in the last quarter, 45% came in only October. November has been significantly better than October. And December is the best across last 16 quarters. So it's already back from the slippages perspective. Oh, no. I'm saying whatever has slipped, how would it cure?
Yeah. I'm not asking about the incremental one. But if you look at October slippages, which were there, when would it cure?
The recovery. You are talking about the recovery.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So recovery rates have been higher than the last two months. For example, last quarter, 139. This quarter, 178. And we are seeing.
The Q1, it was INR 81 crore. Q1 was INR 81 Q2, inr 139 crore. Last quarter, INR 178 crore. And we clearly see that uptick also in January and February.
Okay. Okay. So by March, we should see that normalizing.
We expected to. We expected on that.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Punit Bahlani from Macquarie Research. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. My first one is this quarter, we had an ARC sale. So just wanted to understand the accounting for that. The way I understand is we have provided up to 50-60% for that, and the remaining is to be taken in the part of other income. Am I right? Or just wanted to get a because in the disclosures, there is nothing related to ARC income. So just wanted to confirm for this quarter.
So the ARC, the total portfolio was INR 720 crore. And at the time of sale, whatever the carrying amount of provision was INR 352 crore. And we have the additional provisions that was required that was created at the time of the sale. And the overall transaction is a PL neutral transaction. Okay. Okay. So then this quarter, we'll see the additional INR 350 crore provisions that you had created during the time of the sale. And then you have not reversed. So that was already there in my books, adjusted at the time of sale of the assets.
Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay. Right. Right. And second bit on the stressful bit, now we're seeing that because of the migration to the core banking system, we had had incremental slippages.
So going forward, should I see this stressed, should I expect this stressed to decline, which has gone up, say, from INR 55 billion to INR 75 billion over the coming quarter? Should I expect this to decline? What's your view? Because it seems like the forward flows keep on happening every quarter despite all these things. So any comment on that?
What we say that is we see that as of now, in an EEB portfolio, total slippage percentage as DPD percentage is coming for that is in 3.4%. And we saw that whatever the amount have at the slippage in there, there are then 60% recovered and 40% slippage to NPA. In that sense, we are calculate on that. We find out on that this is an INR 200 crore will be added to our slippage in a quarterly basis.
Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it, sir. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prakhar Agarwal from Elara Capital . Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Two, three questions. One, when you talk about slippage due to the migration, can you help me understand why would it not recover? Because you probably took time to paying the star, but if there are not underlying cash flow problems with the customers, why should the recovery take more than two months for their portfolio?
So what we see that in the group loan, and mainly, it is in weekly basis. And there is a fast point on that. The weekly, when it has happened second week, they are not able to give the double installment to all of the customers. So this is the main point on that. And the second point on that, they are normally practice and behave on that.
They are paying this amount in the last installment when they have closed the loan in the last installment, like in the 50th week. And that day, they are given together in the two. So that is the normal practice on that. And our system is not doing that. They are not know that. But I hope that they are also recovering, coming on that. And of course, it will be reducing on that after that. So that if you see November, December, it has been come down drastically on that.
So in addition to Mr. Ghosh, so when the customers are falling to NPA because of this migration issue, these customers are marginal customers. So those are the 80 days DPD.
So the moment customer goes in, crosses this 91 days DPD, even if he pays the two installment back to me, so he will come back at the DPD of 80, but he will remain stamped as NPA since once he starts NPA. So entire amount need to be recovered from the customer to bring the customer out of NPA.
No, I understand that part. But then your recovery number should also have been higher, right? So respective of the tag that you have for the full payment of two months, but then your recovery amount should have been higher even if he's paying his one EMI. So my recovery number has been increased from INR 139 crore to INR 178 crore this quarter.
Second, in terms of the fee, if I were to look at 239 items, if I were to look at your third-party income, that has come down a significant bit. I'm talking about the consumer spend perspective. Can you also help me understand what are these card charges which are made from Q1? If you look at Q1 to Q3, that number has essentially doubled. What are essentially the nature of these card charges and the others, which is around INR 176 crore? If you look at D3 line item and other income, can you help me understand what is happening there?
Please give that a couple of seconds. No, if you see that we are revised our group insurance policy to the customer. So earlier, we have given that mandatory to the all customers as an insurance. That time premium has come on that.
Now we are decided on that everyone sometimes has not needed to the insurance. So after the taken loan, and we are offered them then, then those are interested, they are coming. So during this period, so little bit we will change some of the system and the process. And that will be taken some time not to come on that amount in that third-party product. And it will be gradually coming on that. And it will be like a better way that people will get the services of insurance with all the compliance with the regulation.
On the card charges, now with post-core banking migration that we have done, we have an ability to adequately and appropriately charge debit card customers. We have certain gaps in that area. So now we have a better ability to collect the exact charges, compute it exactly. That's why the numbers are slightly better.
Okay. And the last one, others, what is exactly INR 176 crores in others?
Others is that one-off, which is INR 400 crores in the last year, similar quarter, same quarter; there was an ARC sale, one-off income. That is not there.
Last bit on management changes, so finally, you highlighted that you have onboarded a couple of guys, and they will join in. But if you look at on the other hand, there have been guys who have been leaving, and probably that trend seems to have not halted. What do you think exactly is the reason for that? And when do you think it probably settles down? Because every now and then, we keep on hearing that there is some other movement which is happening. So what do you anticipate the reason for this, and when do you see this settling down?
If you see that compared to the last financial year and last to last financial year, we are more stable on that. Yes, one-two have left, and that is then bigger opportunities has got by them. And it has been also, of course, it is not unexpected on that, but a very good number of team members also has joined to the bank for future way to grow and reach to the bank goal. So I'm feeling that at a very comfort on that, the very strong team now in the bank to running this bank on that.
Got it. Got it. That is it for me. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yuvraj Choudhary from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Sir, just one follow-up on our CGFMU claim. So we mentioned earlier we could have applied for INR 31,000 crore. However, we applied for a lower claim. So any reasons for that?
No, no. It's not that. The scheme provides for the fact that a borrower has to become NPA and stay NPA for six months within the three-year period of taking the insurance cover. In our case, 85% borrowers are normally paid and closed. Therefore, they never came into the NPA pool. Or they have come to NPA but not stayed for six months. Therefore, we didn't need to claim for that. Practically, that's what it means. So the scheme said 15%, but ours is roughly around 11%.
Okay. That was helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you. The last question for today is from the line of Mahrukh Adajania from Nuvama . Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for allowing me to come back again in the queue. So I just wanted to know what would be the slippage from SMA 2 into EEB NPL this quarter?
Just give me one or two minutes on that. Marouk, I'll get in touch with you on this, sir. Currently, I don't think we have that number. You have not in hand this number? I'll be glad to get back to you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of the question and answer session. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you so much for participating in the conference. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you to all of you to participate and give your valuable time. We will keep confidence in us. We'll always be with you on that. Thank you. Thank you.
On behalf of Bandhan Bank, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.