Bandhan Bank Limited (NSE:BANDHANBNK)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
206.25
-1.38 (-0.66%)
May 8, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
← View all transcripts

Q2 25/26

Oct 30, 2025

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining the Bandhan Bank conference call. I would like to inform you that the call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we'll start shortly. Thank you so much for your patience.

SA.

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for joining the Bandhan Bank conference call. The call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we will start shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Foreign.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the Bandhan Bank conference call. The call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we'll start shortly. Thank you for your patience. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the Bandhan Bank conference call. The call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we'll start shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Sam Sa.

Sam.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the Bandhan Bank conference call. The call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we'll start shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Sam SA.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining Bandhan Bank conference call. The call will begin at 5:15 P.M. Kindly stay connected and we'll start shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Ra Sam.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the Bandhan Bank. The call will begin shortly. Request you please stay connected. Thank you for your patience.

Sam. Sa.

Sam.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your patience. The call will begin shortly. Please stay connected. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Good day and Welcome to the Bandhan Bank Q2 FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikash Mundhra, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Vikash Mundhra
Head of Investor Relations, Bandhan Bank

Thank you. Danish, good evening everyone and a very warm welcome to all of you. Good morning.

It's a pleasure to have you with us today as we discuss Bandhan Bank's business and financial performance for the quarter.

the half year ended September 2025, we apologize for the late start and appreciate your time and continued interest in the bank.

I also hope you all had a.

Joyous festive season and wish you and your families good health, happiness, and prosperity.

In the months ahead.

In today's call, we will take you.

Through our business performance, key achievements and challenges during the quarter. Joining us on the call today are Mr. Partha Pratim Sengupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ratan Kumar Kesh, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Rajinder Kumar Babbar, Executive Director and Chief Business Officer, Mr. Rajeev Mantri, Chief.

Financial Officer myself Vikash Mundhra, Head of.

Industry Relations and other members of our Senior Management team. After the management's remarks, we will be happy to take your questions and provide.

Any additional clarity on the quarter's performance and our outlook?

With that, I would now like to invite our Managing Director and CEO Mr. Partha Pratim Sengupta to share.

His thoughts on the bank's performance for the quarter.

Over to you, Sir.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Thank you, Vikash. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of Bandhan Bank, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all participants on our earnings call of the second quarter of financial year 2025 2026. I hope you and your families had a wonderful and fulfilling Diwali. I wish you continued good health and happiness in the festive season ahead. This quarter's performance reflects a transitional phase for the bank as we continue to realign our portfolio and operating model in response to the changing environment. The recent 25 basis point repo cut in Q1, which we proactively passed on to our customers from the first day of Q2, had a short-term impact on the margins. However, this is part of the adjustment process that will position us well for sustainable growth ahead.

As the repricing of deposits takes place over the next few quarters, we expect to see the full benefit of lower funding costs, which will help improve margins and support profitability. Before delving into the quarter's performance, let me begin with a few initiatives we undertook during the quarter to improvise our products and services with innovative solutions and to better serve our customers. We continue to focus on strengthening our granular liability franchise through innovative and targeted offerings. We have successfully launched the Growth Together campaign, an exclusive CASA drive aimed at promoting current and savings account growth across segments. This initiative is gaining traction and is already yielding encouraging results. This reinforces our commitment to building strong, long-term relationships with our customers. We further place emphasis on sourcing new corporate salary accounts by leveraging our revamped salary product offerings.

Each initiative allows us to provide a more seamless and rewarding banking experience to employees of partner companies while expanding our CASA base in a sustainable manner. The bank introduced specialized products for HNI individuals, including the Elite Elite Plus and Legacy Savings accounts. It is designed to meet the unique needs of our HNI customers. These offerings not only enhance our value proposition but also deepen relationships with this key customer segment. Through this focused initiative, we are confident of driving CASA growth, enhancing customer engagement, and delivering long-term value for all stakeholders. We have made good progress in strengthening our digital and government ecosystem partnerships. I am pleased to share that Bandhan Bank has successfully integrated with the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs for the collection of customs duty through their corporate Internet banking platform.

This initiative enhances our role in facilitating seamless digital payments from government collections. Further, the bank has also integrated with Khajane 2 payment system, a comprehensive digital platform of the Government of Karnataka. This system enables the state to manage all the financial transactions digitally, including revenue receipts and payments to employees, suppliers, and contractors. Through this integration, one bank now becomes part of the Unified E Payment Gateway that ensures real-time transaction recording, secure processing, and online challan generation of very common use. In addition, the bank is also integrated with the Integrated Financial Management System in the state of Rajasthan, which allows for efficient registration of bank accounts and real-time reporting of account balances with the respective government department, further strengthening transparency and efficiency in public finance management.

These initiatives reflect our continuous efforts to enhance digital capabilities, deepen relationships with government entities, and support the nation's digital transformation journey. On the collections front, we continue to focus on enhancing customer convenience and improving the repayment experience. During the quarter, we introduced unique QR codes for our EEB customers and integrated them with the BBPS ecosystem. In addition, we launched a web-based collection module enabling our customers to repay EMIs across products such as personal loans, auto loans, and two-wheeler loans with greater ease. With these initiatives, our customers now have multiple repayment options through the mBandhan app, retail Internet banking, or via over 700 partner apps and web links. These steps significantly reduce friction, simplify the repayment process, and enhance the overall customer experience.

We believe these announcements not only improve convenience for our customers but also strengthen collections efficiency and contribute to the bank's broader focus on digital innovation and customer centricity. I now move to the performance of Bandhan Bank for Q2 financial year 2026 and the first half of financial year 2026. I would like to candidly acknowledge that our Q2 FY 2026 performance was somewhat below our internal expectations. However, the underlying trends and structural improvements give us confidence for an improving second half. There are a few factors that contributed to the softer Q2 FY 2026 performance outcome. Firstly, the 75 basis points repo cut impacted around 45% of our advances, and the 200 basis point reduction in NCLR affected another 5% of our loan book, which moderated the interest income growth during the quarter. We have partly offset this impact by reducing cost of savings by accounts.

However, the larger benefit from lower cost of down deposit will come through mainly from Q4 onwards. Secondly, slippages remain elevated, reflecting the ongoing stress in the EEB segment, which was anticipated to get corrected during the quarter, but since that it will continue for 12 months more. Thirdly, growth in our EEB portfolio remains subdued as the full impact of the industry level guardrails is taking longer time to materialize than anticipated. Finally, our advances growth came largely during the end of the quarter, mostly during the last month of the quarter, which made limited contribution to the profit and loss in Q2. While these factors moderated our near term performance, we remain confident in the bank's underlying strength. The initiatives we have undertaken, including enhanced collection, strengthened risk management, and disciplined growth strategies, are already in motion.

We expect these measures to translate into improved growth and profitability in the upcoming quarter. On a positive note, there are some encouraging developments during this quarter. Firstly, growth in our non-EEB book remains strong, reflecting the resilience and diversification of our loan portfolio. At the same time, the share of our secured assets continues to rise, which strengthens the overall quality of our advances. We are also seeing renewed momentum in CASA, which is a testament to our focused efforts in building a strong and stable deposit base. In parallel, our reliance on bulk deposit continues to decline, supporting a more granular and sustainable funding profile. From an operational perspective, our OPEX to asset ratio improved during the quarter, highlighting disciplined cost management.

Importantly, in the EEB segment, SMA 1 and SMA 2 balances have declined sequentially, signaling early signs of improvement in asset quality that we expect to see reflected in the coming quarters. Finally, the bank's capital and liquidity position remains robust, providing a strong foundation to support future growth and strategic initiatives. Taken together, these developments give us confidence in the resilience, efficiency, and long-term growth potential of Bandhan Bank and we remain optimistic about translating this trend into eco performance in the quarters ahead. While my colleague and Chief Financial Officer Mr. Rajeev Mantri will provide a comprehensive overview of the financials, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few key developments and performance indicators from the second quarter. As of September 30, 2025, our gross advances grew at about INR 1.40 lakh crore, reflecting a YoY growth of 7%.

On the liability side, total deposits reached INR 1.58 lakh crore, growing by a healthy 11% YoY and importantly outpacing the growth in advances. This clearly reflects our strategic emphasis on maintaining a healthy balance sheet that supports sustainable growth. Our retail term deposits continue to show strong momentum, growing by 38% YoY. This growth reflects the increasing trust and engagement of our individual customers and the effectiveness of our distribution network. Our CASA deposits now account for 28% of the total deposit base and the overall share of retail deposits, including CASA and retail term deposits, improved to 31% compared to 68% in the previous quarter. These demonstrate a strong improvement in the granularity and stability of our deposit base, aligning well with our focus on building a sustainable and customer-driven franchise. We continue to execute our diversification strategy with steady progress during the quarter.

Our secured book recorded a YoY growth of 25%, resulting in an improvement in the secured portfolio mix to 55% compared to 47% a year ago. Our NIM for Q2 Financial Year 2026 stood at 5.8%, reflecting some pressure mainly due to the impact of the repo rate moderation. That said, margins continue to remain at a healthy level. For half year Financial Year 2026, NIM was at 6.1%. Credit costs show a small improvement sequentially and we remain committed to bringing them down further throughout the year. We also undertook technical write-offs of about INR 865 crore during the quarter. Gross and net NPA ratios remained stable at 5% and 1.4% respectively, while our PCR including technical write-offs improved slightly to 87.6%. For quarter two financial 2026, our net income stood at INR 3,135 crore while operating profit was at INR 1,310 crore.

The bank reported a PAT of INR 112 crore for the quarter. For half year financial 2026, ROA and ROE stood at 0.5% and 4% respectively. Our capital position remains strong including Q2 FY 2026 profit. Thus, capital adequacy ratio stands at 18.6% and Tier 1 capital at 17.8%, providing adequate headroom to support future growth. Our branch network expanded to 1,754 branches with the addition of four new branches during the quarter. As the microfinance environment moves towards stability, we remain confident in our ability to leverage the emerging opportunities ahead. Our focus will firmly remain on prudent risk management, disciplined execution, and identifying new avenues of growth while continuously enhancing operational efficiency to drive sustained performance. Before I conclude, I would like to reiterate that over the last year we have articulated the BAND and II strategy and have taken measures to achieve the same.

We have taken steps to transition from a microfinance-focused bank to a full-service commercial bank. The focus of our transformation initiative has centered around the seamless integrated customer journey and a broad-based presence in various banking segments driven by technology and cost efficiencies. Risk, compliance, and governance are the pillars on which we are moving ahead. These measures are being taken to achieve long-term value creation for our shareholders. However, during a transition we may witness short-term pain, but I see green shoots and I'm confident that in the long run we will achieve balanced profitable growth with a focus on enhancing shareholder value. With that, I would now like to invite our Chief Financial Officer Mr. Rajeev Mantri to take you through the detailed financial performance for the quarter. Thank you all.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Thank you, Pharta sir, and I welcome again everyone to the earnings call. We will now move on to the business performance for the quarter. I'll walk you through the key financial highlights and provide an overview of how we have performed. We'll start with the advances. As of September 2025, the gross advances stood at INR 1.4 lakh crore, reflecting a growth of 7% year on year, and on a sequential basis, the growth was healthy at 5%. Our emerging entrepreneur business or EEB portfolio stood at INR 51,733 crore as of September 30, 2025, reflecting a decline of 13% year on year and 2% sequentially. However, if we adjust for the technical write-offs undertaken during the quarter, the portfolio would have remained broadly flat on a sequential basis.

This is a result of steps taken to address the decline in the EEB book while ensuring that the portfolio controls and guardrails continue to be implemented to manage elevated sectoral risks. With the operating environment showing some signs of recovery, we are expecting to see gradual growth in the EEB portfolio from Q2 onwards, supported by prudent lending, improvement in collections, and strengthened field discipline. Our non-EEB portfolio continues to deliver strong, broad-based growth. It now accounts for nearly 63% of total advances, up from 60% last quarter and 55% a year ago. The portfolio grew 24% year on year, driven by sustained momentum across both retail assets as well as social banking. Retail assets grew by 66% year on year, led by secured products such as commercial vehicle loans and equipment loans, auto loans, and gold loans.

Wholesale banking also performed very well, recording a 27% year on year increase, reflecting strong client engagement and execution. Overall, these results highlight the strength of our diversified growth strategy and continued expansion of our high-quality non-EEB franchise, driven by focus on diversification and enhancing asset quality. We have further strengthened the secured loan portfolio, driven by wholesale banking, housing, and retail. The secured loan book grew 25% year on year and now accounts for 55% of the total advances, reflecting the steady shift towards a more secure and balanced asset base. From a business mix perspective, our advances remain well diversified across the various segments. The EEB group lending accounted for 24% of total advances. SBAL stood at 13%, wholesale banking at 29%, housing at 24%, and retail assets at 9%. This balanced distribution highlights a conscious effort to reduce concentration and strengthen the portfolio stability and resilience.

Moving to liabilities, as of September 30, 2025, our total deposits stood at INR 1.58 lakh crore compared to INR 1.43 lakh crore a year ago, reflecting a growth of 11% year on year. The deposit growth continues to outpace the expansion in our advances, underscoring our strategic focus on balance sheet resilience and stable funding base. We remain firmly focused on building a granular and stable deposit base with emphasis on growing our retail deposits. Our total retail deposits, comprising both CASA and retail term deposits, grew by 16% year on year. Within this, retail term deposits showed strong momentum, recording a robust growth of 38% year on year, reflecting the trust and confidence our customers continue to place in the bank. The proportion of bulk deposits to total deposits declined to around 29% from 32% a year ago.

This downward trend reflects our focus on enhancing stability and granularity of funding base. Our CASA deposit stood at INR 44,211 crore, reflecting a 6.5% decline year on year. This was primarily due to savings interest rate reduction implemented in Q1, which led to some outflow from savings accounts and some shift towards retail term deposits. However, it has helped us in terms of reducing the cost of funds for savings insurance. However, during the quarter, we have arrested the decline in savings balance and savings account grew sequentially by 3.2%. Overall, CASA is showing signs of recovery, registering a 5.6% sequential growth. Moving to collection and asset quality, the bank's overall collection efficiency excluding NPAs stood at 98.0% for Q2 FY 2026 compared to 97.9% in Q1FY 2026.

Within the EEB, portfolio collection efficiency for the month of September was at 97.5% and for the full quarter of Q2 it was 97.8% compared to 97.6% for Q1 FY 2026. For additional information on collection efficiency, we have a detailed slide 19 in our investor deck. On the asset quality front, while headline metrics remain largely stable, quarter on quarter gross slippages at the overall bank level increased slightly to INR 1,590 crore compared to INR 1,553 crore in the previous quarter, primarily driven by the EEB segment. Slippages in the EEB portfolio were higher at INR 1,118 crore during the quarter versus INR 1,089 crore in the preceding quarter, reflecting ongoing stress in the segment. Recoveries and upgrades during the quarter stood at INR 332 crore, marginally better versus INR 319 crore recorded in Q1 FY 2026. This is at the overall bank level.

While we observe some higher slippages in the EEB segment, there are signs of improvement in the SMA 1 and SMA 2 books. As of the second quarter, the SMA 1 book of EEB has improved to INR 527 crore compared to INR 532 crore in the previous quarter, and the SMA2 book stands at INR 388 crore versus INR 484 crore in the last quarter. The increase, however, in the EEB SMA 0 book is largely due to the impact of raising installment demand on holidays. As we had mentioned earlier, when there is a holiday, we actually see some bit of an increase in the SMA 0 book, and therefore that we saw in this particular quarter as well. If we adjust for this increase in the holiday-related impact, we actually see a sequential improvement in the SMA 0 book as well for EEB.

Out of the total EEB SMA 0 book of INR 1,582 crore as of the end of Q2 FY 2026, as against INR 1,009 crore in Q1FY 2026, nearly INR 650 crore of the increase occurred due to the holiday threat in late September on account of the festive season, and we have already recovered approximately INR 350 crore during October so far out of the INR 650 crore. Additionally, the bank undertook technical write-off amounting to INR 865 crore during the quarter, of which write-off in the EEB portfolio was INR 799 crore. Consequently, the gross NPA and the net NPA ratio at the bank level were largely stable quarter on quarter at 5% and 1.4% respectively. Credit costs improved marginally and stand at 3.4% for Q2 versus 3.5% in Q1 FY 2026. The PCR excluding write-offs remains stable quarter on quarter at 73.7%.

Turning to the quarterly profit and loss statement, in Q2 our NIS stood at INR 25.89 crore, reflecting a year-on-year moderation of 12%. Our net interest margin for the quarter came in at 5.8% for Q2 compared to 6.4% in Q1 FY 2026. This movement was mainly on account of the full impact of 75 basis points deposit rate reduction implemented in the current quarter, which had a bearing on our advance yields. In addition, the growing share of secured loans in our portfolio and some continued stress from elevated slippages also influenced the margin trajectory. We have taken proactive steps to mitigate this impact, including a calibrated reduction in the cost of our savings account rates. We expect to see further benefit from lower term deposit costs flowing through from the fourth quarter onwards, which should help support margin improvement going forward.

Our non-interest income moderated by 10% year on year and 25% quarter on quarter, primarily due to lower treasury gains during the quarter. In the last quarter, we actually had good treasury gains. We continue to make strong progress in diversifying our revenue base. Income from third party products grew by a robust 48% year on year, underscoring the success of our cross-sell and customer engagement initiatives. Operating expenses for Q2 FY 2026 remained largely stable at INR 18.25 crore, reflecting our continued focus on disciplined cost management. The OpEx to average assets ratio stood at 3.8% for the quarter, making a sequential improvement of 9 basis points. Operating profit for the quarter was INR 1,310 crore. The bank reported a net profit of INR 112 crore for the quarter as compared to INR 937 crore in Q2 FY2025 and INR 372 crore in Q1 FY 2026.

For the half year FY2026, we had NII and operating profit at INR 5,346 crore and INR 2,979 crore, respectively. The net interest margin, operating expense to assets ratio, and credit cost were at 6.1%, 3.8%, and 3.4%, respectively. The bank reported a net profit of INR 484 crore in the first half of FY 2026 with an annualized ROA of 0.5% and ROE of 4%. Thank you for your time and listening to all our updates. On behalf of the entire management team, I would like to once again thank all the participants for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest and support. With that, we will now open the floor for questions.

Operator

Thank you so much, sir. We'll now begin with a question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use a headset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Mahrukh Adajania from Nuvama. Please go ahead, sir.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Hello, good evening. I had a couple of questions. Where do you expect the full year and the two year credit costs to settle? I understand that there were holidays, but even so there's like a 54% increase in SMA 0, which is the sharpest. I know you explained, but even so, where do you see the SMA 0 set, and you gave some October numbers, but where do you see the SMA 0 settling in the third quarter? If you could highlight on the credit cost, that's my first question. My second question is that your PPOP margin, right, PPOP to assets, has really fallen to a low in the second quarter and it hardly covers. I mean, there's very little margin now to cover the credit cost, right? How do you strengthen the PPOP margin?

The book will play out in terms of the change in mix and its impact on margin. What are the levers we have to improve the PPOP margin to take care of the volatility in credit cost? My third question is that in the Bihar election manifestos of opposition parties, debt waiver figures and a lot of soft to self help groups are being talked about. How much of that would you expect to rub off to MFI in case these things come through in Bihar? These are my questions. Yes.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

First of all, to answer your query on freight cost, we have a guidance for the next two, three years where we have said that we should come to around 2.5%. This is a transition phase, as we have already said. During this transition phase, the NPAs are going to rise. As you have seen, we have done some major accounting changes also, definitely, for which SMA 0 is one of the conditions. We had some effect of the ballooning effects of the accounting system earlier, where actually the dues, overdues, are getting ballooned at the end of the EMI schedule, but now we have actually brought it forward. That has resulted in some ballooning NPA, which is the reason for increasing trade cost. It is coming down and it will gradually come down. This is the first thing.

The second thing is that slippages of EEB from the EEB segment are yet to get arrested. Till quarter two, what was our expectation? It has not happened for definite reasons across the industry, and so those leakages are now showing some good trend, as what Ratan Kesh definitely just said for the day, that the SMA 2 figures almost decreased by INR 100 crore on a quarter-to-quarter basis, and the trend is on the similar line. We expect the substantial slippages can.

Be at a stage.

With the slippages it gets casted. Definitely the provision requirement will come down and the credit cost will improve. This is the first thing. We are still maintaining our guidance that after two three years we will be putting it around 2.5.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yes.

Yeah.

Just to further complement clarity on the first point, what we have said is by FY 2027 exit is where we are expecting a credit cost of 2.5% - 3% for EEB on a stable state basis. On an overall bank basis, we'll be looking at a cost of 1.5% - 1.6%, and that is because we are improving our secured mix. As we've already seen, we will continue to endeavor towards that, and also we expect that the recovery in the EEB environment comes through over the next six to seven quarters.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

The second part, your resume is zero. As we have already said, if holidays are there, we can't help because demands are generated but people are not there in the field for the lesson. What Rajeev has already given is a trend that almost 85% of the amount of SMA 0 in the EEB segment has already been recovered during the first month of this June. We expect that this will also come down, but it will definitely depend on the holiday period. As regarding your CPO3 margin, the effect of the reduced cost of funds will come into our balance sheets almost on a large basis.

A partial will come in Q3, but the majority will come in Q4, and Q1 of next quarter we will see a substantial impact of this cost of reduction of our interest rates, the moderation of interest rate, and definitely that will also improve our margin. Further, we are also taking steps to increase our other income. Recently, we have also revised some of our service charges, and we are taking many more steps to increase our other income. The treasury operations, which has given us a huge profit in Q1, obviously because of the increasing rates, has not happened during this quarter. We are also looking if we can gain some treasury, make some treasury case. These are the steps we are taking to improve our PPOP margin. As regarding Bihar elections, we find that during election manifestos, many political parties do come with debt waivers.

We have also seen that most political parties have realized that this is not a permanent solution, and even the state does not have the capacity actually to fulfill this commitment. We look into it, but I don't see a major problem because Bihar has been one of the good states compared to many other MFIs. Actually, for Bandhan Bank, the recovery has been quite good.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah. I think that should supplement the NIM because the forefront of the reporting impact came through in this quarter on the advances book. While we have taken action to reduce the savings account rates, which has immediately given some benefits, the reduction in the retail term deposit rates will take a bit of time depending on when the deposits come for renewal. That's what we said from Q4. We should start to see, so effectively this net interest margin will be sort of the lower point. From this coming quarter onward, we should start to see some improvement in the net interest margins.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

How much did you cut your MCLR by, say, since April?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

200?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Roughly 200 basis points.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Has anyone cut MCLR so sharply, or are you higher than peers?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

No, we are. We have just moderated the calculation. Earlier, what was the way of doing MCLR, because we took this opportunity, we are one of the outliers. We had an MCLR of almost 11.5% compared to the next one in the queue with around 9.5% or 9.7%. We did a recalculation and we thought that it should be prudent enough that we make the correction at one time because it may be a requirement going forward. That has impacted almost INR 5,000 crore of our housing.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Okay, as in change the way you calculate what in MCLR, like cost of funds is a given now.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, yeah. Definitely, some of the service charges which we are actually recovering from the customers, that was the basis for that year. Since we are recovering it, we have not taken it as the cost of funds.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

I think some of the elements are broadly aligned in the way the market actually computes it. We align you to the market.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Okay, thank you. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchstone telephone. The next question comes from the line of Abhishek Murarka from HSBC Bank. Please go ahead. Yeah.

Abhishek Murarka
Director, HSBC Bank

Hi. Good evening, sir. I have a follow-up question on the microfinance business in Bihar. Has the INFIN stepped in, or have you or some of the large lenders made some representations or issued some guidelines so that your field agents can work without any hindrance? If customers tell them that it's going to be waived, do they have some official document to show, saying that right now you have to service your loan? Just the reaction from the industry and the support that you might be getting or might not be getting from the government, if you can comment on that. That's question one. I'll come back on question two actually.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Bihar again I'm telling you that if you look at our portfolio, the delinquency trends are at a very acceptable level. I can say for that. Almost 30 against 30%. If you look at the delinquency trend for the day, industry trend is 5.14% against which our trend is 3.8%. If you look at the 90 + delinquency case, the industry trend is 3.0%, ours is 2.04%. If you look at 180 + delinquency trend, 12.54% is the industry trend and ours is 6.84%. We are a little bit comfortably placed than what the industry is doing for the day. This election manifesto, each time whenever it happens in any state, this is one of the things. I think many of the political parties do come up, but till now at least no major political party, we have not seen that they have come with these manifestos.

Vishal, if you want to adjust,

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

this is Vishal here. In terms of Bihar, we are watching it very closely. In terms of the impact in the last one month or so in our portfolio cuts, we have seen regular collection. That's been the way it's been happening in the previous quarter, though we have taken the cognizance in terms of the knowledge which is going around in the political environment out there. That's one of the things always getting highlighted whenever a state election is happening. We are closely tracking. It's been performing as expectation and in fact in the same manner it was performing in the previous quarter as well. I don't think as of now we see a challenge, but we are cognizant of being keeping a very close eye in terms of how things are progressing there.

Abhishek Murarka
Director, HSBC Bank

Some preemptive steps have still not been taken, or you've not felt the need to take.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Body and the directive from there given and given to all the Relationship Officers to carry it along and to explain that these waivers talk and all is all not sustainable and not rightful. That is given to all of the ROs, which are the Relationship Officers who travel and meet the customer in their weekly meetings. They make the customer very much understand whoever comes up with that query. We haven't seen thus far so much of customer noise saying that we waive our loan amount or, you know, we would not like to pay because people were saying we want to pay on behalf of us. Those things have really not come up. There have been very small one or two group meetings in which it had come up and we will explain. We haven't seen much of a number difference of collection, much better than the industrial.

Even the MFIM has given us, you know, one failure to inform all our customers in terms of during the election time and that's only specific to Bihar whenever state elections are there and with a common guideline given to all of us in terms of how do we, you know, explain to the customers who are raising this point of, you know, political interferences and waivers for the donors.

Abhishek Murarka
Director, HSBC Bank

Understood. Okay, thank you for that. The second question is your disbursements in EEB have gone up and obviously a couple of states there is still an increase in SMA 1, SMA 2, etc. and you are also, you've also said in your opening remark that stress may continue in EEB for one or two quarters. Which geography have you been comfortable in lending? That is what I wanted to understand. Where has this disbursement?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Just to clarify, what MD sir mentioned was stress to probably continue for one or two more months and thereafter we should.

Abhishek Murarka
Director, HSBC Bank

Okay, but the question still stands. Where have you found comfort in increasing your disbursements and lending more

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

so.

Definitely I consider the eastern part is doing reasonably well. West Bengal, Assam, Bihar. In the other parts also we are seeing delinquencies are improving, the collection efficiency has improved. Rightfully, MV sir spoke about West Bengal. Bihar continues to be our strength area and that is where we have seen growth also coming in. We have a large existing base, so there is a renewal every 12 months or 18 months. That is where we really, for the good customers of ours, we really focus upon and try to get that renewed. West Bengal, Assam, we are in that order, keeps on doing well. We've also seen some traction happening now in parts of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, though not in that scale of what eastern India is going around.

The places where we are really not able to go because the guardrails are Tamil Nadu and Karnataka because of the late entrance of ours. Otherwise, we see decent renewals coming in and we want to clean by the numbers. Dispersal of EEB in last quarter, quarter two, visible quarter one has been almost back to the levels of FY 2025, quarter two level, one good trend. That's one confident statement, you know, which we get in when we see that the businesses are picking up because the business lands go to it. This was the land collection goes on hand in hand. This quarter I think we have made more than 5,000. In September, we get September month, we cross 5,000.

Abhishek Murarka
Director, HSBC Bank

Understood. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you for the clarification and all the best.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Aravind Ravic handran from Sundaram Alternates. Please go ahead.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I just wanted to understand, in housing category also, in a percentage mode sequentially.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Can you be a little clear?

Sorry Arvind, the line is not very clear.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Yeah, sorry.

Can you hear me now? Is it better now?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

No, not better. I think associated echo is coming.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Hello? Is it better now? Sorry,

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

yeah, I think it's clearer.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Sorry. I was trying to understand that, you know, in housing category also, like, you know, sequentially NPA has moved up, NPA percentage. Is it again like because of the holidays or is there something else in the play? Because, like, you know, growth is also very strong there in housing category despite the NPA percentage move up sequentially. I would just like to understand what is.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, so I think if I could understand. Sorry, the audio is in and out. What your question is around the housing NPA and the SMA, right? As to what exactly is that?

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Yeah, how NPA sequentially moved up despite being higher growth, like having higher growth. Just would like to understand what is happening there.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

I think, like mentioned earlier, there had been some sort of ballooning related sort of NPA recognition which had happened sometime back, and we do an assessment of that on a quarterly basis, which affects some bit of housing. However, even if the SMA book has slightly gone up and we've seen that the credit cost and the final recovery that come through are commensurate, and therefore the net credit cost that comes through is aligned to the industry standards. The little bit of an increase that we see coming through the housing pertains to some of the underlying portfolio in the affordable segment. The bank is taking efforts to make sure that the recovery comes through within that. We are not seeing any kind of a material trend per se, which is causing a significant risk.

There are basically certain areas in certain sectors or sections within the housing where we've seen the risk emanating a little bit more. The bank is taking actions to make sure that the collection efforts increase on that particular front. Overall, on a net basis, even after the recovery, if you look at the credit cost, it is actually quite commensurate with what we see in the industry.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Slippages have gone to 2.4%. That is in the housing loan segment. At the same time, recovery is around 15%. The NPA to the total advances stands at 2.8% during the quarter.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

But.

It was 2.3%, not 2.4%.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Okay, just one more question. Within the EEB portfolio, like, you know, but then plus more than three lenders, like it has been actually stable for past few quarters. Is it like, you know, what is happening there? Are you finding it difficult to run down that portfolio? What is happening there?

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

We put the guardrail down on April 2nd for FY 2026. That means it's been six months since the time the guardrail has been put into effect for three lender launch. I think we'll have to wait for two more quarters and gradually it will speed up because I just might have to compare in the first two quarters the three lender plus has gone down that 50 bps or 100 bps, 1%. It has come down to a 9.5%. Right. This 9.5% now will go at a speedier pace from quarter three, quarter four onwards. Come March, because our loans also run for 12, 18, 24 months. Come March 2026, you will see this number of 9.5% going down to a 7%, 6% is what when we checked out, it will become that way and below 5%, maybe quarter 1, FY 2027.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Yeah.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

What we are seeing, obviously 100 bps has come down already in the last two quarters, and you'll see the traction really picking up now because whatever has been booked for, you know, last 18 months, it will start maturing now in 12 months and so on and so forth. The numbers will of 300 knowledge will speeding up compared to what it has been up. Keep on going down from there.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Understood, sir, understood. There's one last question.

Operator

Sorry, Aravind Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but please rejoin the queue for more questions. Thank you.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Thank you,

Operator

ladies and gentlemen. In order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants and the constants, kindly limit the questions to two questions per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Anish Rai from UBS. Please go ahead.

Anish Rai
Associate Director, UBS

Hello. Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. I had a question around your net new EEB customer recognition. That has been hovering at the same level for quite a while now. I think for the last two, three years now. Just wanted to check, do you still believe there's an increasing penetration story there, or do you think the market there has sort of saturated now and it's all going to market share gains? The related question is, when you think about growth for the microfinance industry or for the bank, where do you see that growth coming from? I think anyways lever and all would be quite conservative from here. How do you see that growth without that increase in customer accretion? That is my question. Thank you.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Sorry, Anisha, question just to understand, is the increase in customers or increase in advances net

Anish Rai
Associate Director, UBS

EEB customers?

Customers,

active customers. You disclose it net EEB active customer number. Right,

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

got it, got it.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Oh you're right that we are stagnant in terms of the new borrower coming in month on month. As we speak, even today we keep on adding up 1 lakh, 31 lakh 40,000 customers. On an average in a quarter, we add up 3.5 lakh, 4 lakh customers. What we also realize when we go for new customers is there are a lot of visits which have increased in the industry due to delinquency, and that's why we are also not able to really work upon getting the new borrowers because they have been rejected on account of their performance outside Bandhan Bank account, and that's the industry trend.

The good news is that on the renewal side, we have been working very closely with analytics to ensure that the good customers of ours which have been with us for a longer time are all getting renewed and all getting rolled for the new loans as well. This traction we will keep on seeing for the next one or two quarters. Once the industry stabilizes and the leverage issue is completely licked off, we will try and get further new customers. Currently, if you see and go by the industry number, 23%-24% of the overall industry customers are ineligible to take loan going by the government.

Anish Rai
Associate Director, UBS

Okay.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

I'm able to answer your question.

Anish Rai
Associate Director, UBS

Sure. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir.

Anish Rai
Associate Director, UBS

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Param Subramanian from Investec. Please go ahead.

Param Subramanian
Equity Research Analyst, Investec

Good evening. Thanks for taking my question. Firstly on funding cost. Quarter on quarter, cost of funds is as in there is not much movement. Why is that the case? The CASA ratio is up. We have taken substantial cuts in our savings rate as well. Why is cost of funds not yet showing improvement? Related to that, how to think about NIMs going into the second half and next year? I think at the beginning of the cycle we had called out that because of the mix shift, the bank would lose 70, 80 basis points of NIM. It looks like we're already there. How to think about NIMs from here on?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

The funding was what? We have already explained that a moderation in the savings bank has come. My funding cost of savings bank has almost by 200 basis points, that's come down. The fixed deposits are yet to come. We have got almost close to INR 70,000 crore of retail term deposits and also 64 deposits are also there. There the moderation will take place as and when this gets renewed. It will take actually to.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Your CASA ratio is up, right? Quarter on quarter.

There is a savings cost marginally up.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Yes, we are 28%.

It has.

27 to 28%. We are marginally up. The main thing is that because of the fixed deposits which were adding a very high rate of interest, that needs to get moderated and that will get moderated only at the time of renewal for which we need to wait till quarter four. A little bit impact will come in Q3, but not much. Q4 actually the major impact will.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Come just to share some numbers. For instance, for our savings account the cost has come down from an average of 5.52% last year or even in March 2025, 5.5% to almost 4.2% for this quarter. In fact, the September month was almost down to 4%. We have done substantial reduction in savings cost which will continue to give us benefit going forward as well. The term deposit rate reduction that we have done will take some time to effect because of the renewal date of the retail term deposits coming in largely in Q4, some will come in Q3, mostly in Q4, some will come in the first half of next year.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

The second question regarding the NIM, we have already indicated that as we are moving towards more secured books, the NIM would get impacted. It has got further impacted because of the upfronting of the repo cuts which we were not expecting. Again, the moderation definitely will continue. Our guidance is that we should have it around 6%. We are working towards it. It is not that EEB will not grow. Whatever the growth in the EEB has taken place, I think it will be arrested and from Q3 onwards we will be witnessing the growth. That will definitely help us in actually achieving our new target. Currently we are around 6.1% if we look at the half year. Already another 10 basis point moderation we have already taken into account and probably with the EEB segment going up, we will be able to achieve.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

The NIMs for the quarter were 5.8%. What we expect as the renewals for the PDs come through, the margin should improve from these levels. We actually expect the upper trajectory from here. This could be sort of the bottom point, at least during the financial year.

Param Subramanian
Equity Research Analyst, Investec

From here on it improves, and even from a mix perspective. Our strategy, you know, we initially highlighted that we want secured, you know, in the loan mix of about 55%. I think we are broadly there. Even microfinance, I mean including the individual loan, is 36%, 37%. We seem to be already there. Right, so how to think about mix going forward for the next. Going into FY 2027, is microfinance going to grow from here and has it bottomed out in the mix?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

That is our strategy. If we grow in microfinance, our growth in the non-microfinance will be much more at a much higher rate. This ratio will be maintained or a little bit it will dip down.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yes, I think the secured mix could actually increase further by rather 73 percentage points through the next six to seven quarters. The degrowth in the EV book is what we're trying to arrive at so that we can at least start having a moderate bit of a growth. That is why we are trying to get the mix.

Param Subramanian
Equity Research Analyst, Investec

Okay, so 55 can move towards something like 52 odd broadly, right, is what you're saying. Two, three.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

No, no, what we're saying is 57, 58 over the next seven quarters. During that particular period we will also try and get the growth back into EV so the ratio could move between these effectively.

Param Subramanian
Equity Research Analyst, Investec

Okay.

Fair enough. Any.

Operator

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

I'm really sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Subramaniam. You can rejoin the queue for the next question. Thank you.

Param Subramanian
Equity Research Analyst, Investec

Okay,

Operator

our next question comes from the line of Anand Dama from Emkay Global Financial Services Limited. Please go ahead, sir.

Anand Dama
Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Thank you for the opportunity.

This NCLR cut that we have done, 200 basis point, is that something to do with RBI telling us or is it basically.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Let me make it very clear that it is. It has got nothing to do with RBI.

Anand Dama
Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Okay.

Is there anything? Basically, I'm sure that this year's RV supervision would be largely over, any?

Address comments that basically came through in the RBI report.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

I think that we cannot pinpoint it that all banks do have the reports. I would say that the major regulatory issues which were there, those have been already, I think, have been addressed. Where technology dependence is there, these are in the process of getting addressed. That much I can say. The major regulatory issues that were there, we have already addressed those things. Definitely, whenever you are in any banking operations, there will be some observations from the regulator. We will address as and when required.

Anand Dama
Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Just to confirm, basically we will not.

Have any further shocks in terms of?

Any PSL classification or anything that would come from RBI.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Nothing as such. We have supervisory.

Anand Dama
Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Secondly, on Bihar, I think it's the opposition manifesto which has talked about some.

Kind of waivers and so on. The ruling party hasn't.

Is there any difficulty in terms?

Of approaching the customer in terms of.

Of collections now, given that the elections are announced, we are able to reach to the customer conduct center meetings and so on.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Can I answer the question?

Just quickly repeat it one sentence. As of now we are cognizant of the issue opposition. However, we haven't seen any material change in our collections as for today as well till date. We are keeping a close watch and it's been a part of the business of us. Whenever there's a state election these things have been spoken about and slowly settles down and stabilizes. We haven't seen any disruption as of now. The customer visits are happening. Group center meetings are happening in a normal.

Anand Dama
Analyst, Emkay Global Financial Services

Sure, sir. That's very helpful, sir. Thanks a lot.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Our next question comes from the line of Hardik Shah from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Yeah.

Hi sir. Good evening sir. If you can quantify the MFI slippages in this quarter. Sir, any qualitative reason why you know the situation did not pan out the way it should have been because other banks, you know all banks which have MFI segment, they have seen 20%, 30%, 40% decline in slippages. What is this, the geographical thing which is a bit of an adverse thing for us or you know why.

Is it that the slippages seem to.

Be elevated or not improved significantly versus others.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Maybe I'll answer both. Firstly, on the number, the slippages for the EEB, which is group loan, sir, as well, both was INR 1,118 crore. This was a gross slippage, and the net slippage was INR 984 crore. The gross slippage increased marginally from INR 1,089 - INR 1,118 during the quarter. On your second question, I think, look, from our perspective, the bank had already been following the guardrails to a large extent. Right? If you look at it, for us, the Bandhan Plus two portfolio was almost close to 90%, and the over-leveraging portfolio portion of the EEB was only around 10%. That also has improved further down to 9.5%.

However, the industry number used to be much larger, and what we see from the bureau report, the industry almost a year back was 19%, and over the period, they have tried to come down. You will probably see the reduction more in the industry because they are coming from a position of much higher delinquencies to a lower than 20%. From our standpoint, our delinquency levels are lower, and we have been doing better than the industry. However, at the same time, we are trying to put in efforts to make sure that our collection recovery efforts go up and also that we have lower slippages come through, which is what we are expecting sometime in Q2 on the slow recovery to come through quickly.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

I will just supplement in terms of what you spoke about the industry. I'll give you the figures which are reported by the bureau end of September. 180+ which is typically at an industry level is at 15.26%. We are at 7% at a 180 level. At a 90 - 180, industry is at 3.7%. We are at 2.08%. Comparatively, both 90+ and 180+ are far for years compared to the industry. Even if they have said stiffenies have reduced, maybe for this quarter they have already been at a very high end of 180 and 90 already in the previous quarter, current quarter standing point. If I see in the month of September, the large difference between both 90+ and 180+. I'm not sure about where are we letting the figures of slippages of the industry overall improving.

When you get some other banks, they have a very small amount of this EV book. There may be percentage wise has shown a better improvement compared to us because we have a large base. On this large base, the percentage improvement is difficult to predict.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Okay, sure. Secondly, this INR 650 crore of SMA 0, which was because of bunched up holidays, you have managed to recover INR 350 crore of them. Ideally, it should have been, you know, even much more, right?

I mean, is that the understanding?

You know the INR 650 crore of months of holiday. Of course, the holiday season is over, and then, you know, 2H for October should be a decent active month. You have only managed to recover INR 350 crore. Is that what I mean? This is what you said, right? That you have managed to recover INR 350 crore. You have managed to regularize INR 350 crore out of INR 650 crore bunched up, right?

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Let me explain this holiday demand for your understanding. What happened was because we have got a predominantly 53% of our portfolio and in use and September 29 and 30 were holidays. There is an impact of holiday demand in which we collected 92% of our customers, 92% of the customers. On the days of 2019 30s we were able to collect 8% of the customers which because we have weekly installment we were not able to collect. The following week we are able to collect 95% of the 8% of the customers. What happened is because of the 8% of the customers that totals up to close to INR 600 crore was the principal outstanding. We move to 1 DPD 1 to 7 DPD or 7 DPD to 15 DPD, two Monday holidays like in this month of October.

There have been three holidays on Monday which is about being a Monday weekly installment. Because we have to take advance, we take 90% - 93%. 7, 8% are flown to the next weekend weekly cycle and which we collect again in the next weekly cycle. Whatever flows like this 550 which had happened earlier as well in the month of March 31st and specifically on the last day of the month we are able to collect 92%, 93% in the advance 7, 8% in the following week. That is a proof of a testament that when you see SMA 1 and 2 there is no increment there even from April to September October but SMA 0 gets elevated temporarily for a week primarily and slowly, slowly it keeps on coming down week by week.

As I speak this 1,500 number is reported here as a less than a zero in the 1,200 odd number and we, you know, three, four days back. This number will slowly come down to a below thousand number which was there in quarter two and so on and so forth in the next one month because there are no more holidays in November and December and nothing coming at the end of the month. The last day of the holiday month of the holiday in the last year of the month becomes a bigger problem because we don't have time to collect for that particular on September 29 and 2 were holidays so there were continuous holidays released for that reason. Like what Ravi explained, bulk of it has already got collected in October and whatever is still that one week pending will further get collected in.

I don't see a risk in SMA 0 formation. This is very temporary for two to three weeks and then it's stabilized this particular month because of three monthly holidays. It is taking maybe one week or two weeks more. Come November, I feel that part one to 30 will stabilize back to the normal number of June numbers. Temporary blip because of the last day being a holiday.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Yeah, thanks Vishal. Just the last thing on your notes, in the PPT you mentioned that GMP.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

We can't.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Sorry.

Yes, sir. Is this better now?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Okay.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Why is this cracking?

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

No, I think still some, Sir.

Just wanted to check this wholesale banking.

ABG book and erstwhile SEL book, what is the reason for the rise in GNPA there?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Okay, if you're talking about the SEL which is ABG book, the increase in NPA, is that the question?

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Yes sir. What is the reason? I mean self.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Book. The denominator impact is there. We have gone a little slow in terms of the growth in self and we are planning to change our policies in making it far more robust. For that reason, there's been an impact of denominator growth in APL. Otherwise, the slippage pattern of ABG has been on the same similar numbers month on month the way it was there also in the previous quarters or so. Because of the denominator coming down in the growth, we are trying to make it in a more robust manner. That is why you will see that impact of the NPS elevated in the % is going higher. In terms of the number as per se, as such, it's pretty much in the same trend.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

I was referring to absolute number only. INR 730 crore of GNPA has become INR 870 crore on a quarter-to-quarter basis in wholesale banking, and GNPA in wholesale banking, INR 750 crore has become INR 18. Yeah. The wholesale banking book includes the ABG portfolio. I think if you look at the wholesale banking NPA levels excluding the ABG, it is quite low, almost like 0.5% or 0.6%, 0.8%. ADP is what has a slightly higher NPA primarily because the book actually has been degrowing and the denominator effect, like Vishal mentioned, is affecting the NPA percentage. There are certain underlying risks which the team is actually looking at in terms of improving the collections. It has been an unsecured portfolio which actually has had some bit of an NPA level. The team is focused in terms of making sure that the collections come through.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

This is unsecured business banking, right? I mean what we see at other banks.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Okay.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

This is not a lab, right? Is it business banking, unsecured working capital?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

No, no, no. This is not allowed.

Hardik Shah
Senior Equity Associate, ICICI Securities

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Watser Pa raksha from Knightstone Capital Management. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question.

My question is regarding MFI. We are seeing that Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra also have some difficulty in collections from some other players. Are you seeing any stress there?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Like I said, Bihar is doing.

Reasonably well for us.

For us, like I said, coming down to Karnataka is a little stress. Manashkar is doing reasonably okay for us. As far as we are concerned, though, I see there is an industry different from our portfolio compared to the industry portfolio. Industry doesn't do that well for us. Gujarat is, compared to the industry, a little cause of concern. Not that much to worry because our portfolio in Gujarat and southern states are much lower if you have to compare. We are keeping ourselves abreast in terms of and watching the Bihar portfolio more qualitatively.

Maharashtra is still holding for us.

Way it was only.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

I hope the question was answered. I think.

Operator

Hello.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, what? Sir, could you hear that? The answer.

Operator

Give me one minute, sir. Please go ahead.

Yeah.

My next question was more forward looking in nature. For H2 we were banking on the growth being higher in MFI and the asset quality improving. Next year in Q4, West Bengal and Assam both will have the election. I just wanted to understand historically in the past two, three election cycles for West Bengal and Assam what has been a trend in disbursement in asset quality. Do they significantly deteriorate or can we bank on H2 being significantly better than H1 despite the election monster in.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

In fact, 5 years back when the election took place, the portfolio quality was much better. There were no issues at all. In West Bengal there is no election, no political company and no political party gives us campaign that. I don't think that will happen in any way. Assam also, there was, you know, post election that had come up earlier. I don't think in Bengal specifically anything of this is being even spoken at this point of time. Like I said, this business is such that there is a political imprisonment and we are aware of how to manage it even now because we have been doing it for a long time across the industry.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Like you know, this business is also microfinance has been half two is far superior than half one in terms of both disbursement growth and stability in terms of quality of the book as well. We are optimistic that Product three, Product four will have better trends and trends in terms of both growth as well as in quality of the asset book.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

I think because of the various guardrails and the communication, the borrowers are also well aware now of the need for a discipline in terms of repayments.

Okay, got it. Lastly, have you taken any price hikes in group loan?

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

No, no, no, we have not increased any price.

Okay, okay. Yeah, that's all. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Next question comes from the line of Aravind Ravic handran from Sundaram Alternates. Please go ahead.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Because we have seen, like, you know, different players because of the ripped pricing in MFI. Maybe have we instruct the yields, like, you know, different lenders have done different things. Based on the past several quarters, they felt like there is a need to raise yields. Don't you see any need like that in rising yields for JLG loans, MFI loans? That is my first question.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

We are not looking at moving any risk-based pricing because the group concept is cohesive. It's difficult to implement risk-based pricing in a group in many ways. We want to conclude the way it is in terms of ensuring that we get the right quality book rather than looking at a risk-based pricing. The proof concept is very cohesive and informed group, and it is very difficult to implement on the ground that we have different risk-based pricing and explain in a particular group. We have been skipping the way in terms of keeping a flat rate at a group level, and we haven't increased the prices or yield in the recent past.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, I think there is no plan to hike the rates in the MFI. Rural market basically is a very sensitive market because one customer is getting a particular rate, another that is another rate, then there's basically a disconnect, so most of them want the similar rate. They have taken a loan of INR 50,000 in the fixed installment. I am paying so much amount to be debt to be.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

If you look at the risk profile of this customer, the risk profile is also the same. It is very similar, excepting that some are paying on time and paying with some delay or someone not going for the day. If you look at the risk profile for anything, whether on the basis of income or whether the basis of the schemes, unstructured information, the risk profile almost is very similar in respect of this particular segment of customer.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Just one more question on the branch addition. Branch addition, I think, is lesser than our desire in terms of bringing back growth for the subsequent quarters, like about, let's see, even INR 20,000 or 28 also. How are we looking at it now? We are unable to understand the question. Sorry, I was trying to understand, branch addition has been particularly slow in the last few quarters. If we want to get back the growth in the subsequent years, is this enough? Are we going to significantly accelerate the branch expansion, rather investment? I understand that you mentioned that we need to make investments. Yeah,

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

yeah.

We already have a plan for branch expansion during the next one year. We are just going ahead with that plan only, but our motto is not that we would go very aggressively in branch expansion. Rather, we are focusing on the digital strength capability of the bank, but definitely in geographies where our presence is very less. We are focusing now on the south. We are also focusing a little bit on the north, but definitely much.

Lesser focus on the east.

Aravind Ravichandran
Equity Research Analyst, Sundaram Alternates

Understood, understood. Thank you.

Vishal Wadhwa
Executive VP, Bandhan Bank

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. This question comes from the line of Mahrukh Adajania from Nuvama. Please go ahead.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Thank you for giving me one more chance at asking a question. I just had one clarification that ECL will be implemented now, so what would be your overall SMA pool? Because that will determine the stage two provisions, right? In terms of even other loans, obviously you've been transparent enough and you are disclosing the EEB pool regularly, which is very helpful. What is the total SMA pool including non-EEB, like say for 0, 1, and 2?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah.

Baru, you know we have sort of looked at the new regulation.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Sorry,

Vikash Mundhra
Head of Investor Relations, Bandhan Bank

you want the figures as of September 30 or you are one.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Yes, yes. No, September 30, the total SMA.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Are you asking for the SMA as per the current books or SMA as per India's new guidelines?

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

You can give either. I mean you can give both.

Partha Pratim Sengupta
Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank

Look, we are assessing and evaluating. I think the draft guidelines have come through. We're looking at what exactly it would mean for the bank. At this stage, that process is still on. Currently, whatever we have in terms of the BPD books, in terms of SMA 1, 2, etc., we've already included in the investor deck for EB. You will be able to see the details there. The assessment for the new guidelines of ECL is still under process. We will not be able to have the details of that.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Sure. In GAAP, would you be able to share the total SMA pool under GAAP including?

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

We will not have the figures for India side now, not for the ECA.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Okay. In gap also you won't have.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, we can share it later.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

All right, thank you so much. Thanks.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Yeah, yeah, we'll be connected.

Mahrukh Adajania
Research Analyst, Nuvama

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ma'am.

Am.

In the interest of time, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you.

Rajeev Mantri
CFO, Bandhan Bank

Thank you everyone for joining for the investor call and for patiently listening to the various updates as well as for asking the various questions. Thank you for reporting the trust in the bank. Thank you so much.

Operator

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

Thank you.

Powered by