Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to UCO Bank Q2 FY 2025 call. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the senior management of UCO Bank. With us, we have Mr. Ashwini Kumar, MD. Hello, sir. Mr. Rajendra Kumar Saboo, Executive Director. Mr. Vijay N. Kamble, Executive Director. We'll have opening remarks from the MD sir, post which we'll open the floor for question and answer. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. I welcome all investors and analysts to this post quarter two results. Total business of the bank grew by 13.56% on a YOY basis, INR 2,04,33,704 crore, of which deposits grew by 10.57% at INR 2,02,75,777 crore. Advances grew by 18% to INR 1,97,927 crore. Our RAM, total RAM, stood at INR 1,08,200 crore, with a growth of 20% on a YOY basis. Under it, RAM, retail advances stood at 47,039 crore, registering a growth of 29.36%, which was fueled by home loan and vehicle loan growth.
Home loan growth of 19% and vehicle loan growth of 38.66%, respectively. Agriculture advances stood at INR 26,987 crore, with a growth of 17.41%, of which the contribution to the SHG portfolio, which grew by 33.63% on a YOY basis. MSME sector stood at INR 34,174 crore, registering a growth of 11.23% on a YOY basis. Now, coming to operating profit. Operating profit of the bank for the quarter ended thirtieth September stood at INR 1,432 crore, registering a growth of 45.82% on a YOY basis, against INR 982 crore for the same period in the preceding year.
For the half year ended, the operating profit stood at INR 2,573 crore, registering growth of 26% over previous year. Net profit, as on thirtieth September, stood at INR 603 crore, as against INR 402 crore for the same period in the preceding year, registering 50% growth on a YOY basis. For a half yearly basis, net profit stood at INR 1,154 crore, against INR 625 crore, registering growth of 84% on a YOY basis. Net interest income for the quarter ended thirtieth September 2024 grew by 20% on a YOY basis. For the half year ended September 2024, net interest income grew by 16% on a YOY basis.
Net interest margin for the quarter ended thirtieth September twenty twenty-four, on a global basis, was 3.10%, against 2.84% for the same period in the preceding year. For the half year ended, the NIM stood at 3.09%, against 2.92% during the preceding year. The NIM was supported by increase in cost of deposit, which grew by thirty-two basis points, whereas cost of funds grew by thirty-two basis points, whereas the cost of yield on funds grew by fifty-two basis points. So that added our NIM margin.
Coming back to asset quality, gross NPA has improved to 3.18% as on thirtieth September 2024, against 4.1, 4.14% as on thirtieth September 2023, thereby registering an improvement of 96 basis points over on YOY basis. Net NPA improved to 0.73% as on thirtieth September 2024, registering an improvement of 38 basis points on a YOY basis. Provision coverage ratio stood at 95.92% as on thirtieth September 2024. CRAR of the bank stood at 16.84%, wherein Tier I was 14.59%. Cost-to-income ratio has also improved to 56%. Fee-based income grew by 15% on a YOY basis, and quarter-on-quarter basis by 10%.
Our non-interest income grew by 53% on a YOY basis, and on quarter-on-quarter basis by 19%. Our SMA more than 1 crore portfolio is around 1,500-1,600 crore, which is 0.38% of our total advances. This was the overall performance of the bank. Now, coming back to the guidance, we have given a guidance of deposit growth of 8%-10%, where now the growth for this September quarter was 10.57%. Our CASA growth, again, we have given a guidance of 8%-10%. CASA grew by 8.09% in this quarter. Credit growth, our guidance was 12%-14%. Overall, credit growth is 18%. Within the credit growth RAM advances, I have already shared housing, retail, everything I have already covered.
CASA percentage, bank continue to maintain 38% CASA over last five, six quarters. CASA has been hovering around 37%-38%, and we continue to maintain this ratio. CD ratio of the bank has improved from 67.25% a year before to 71.77%. Our target is to reach to 75%. Slippage ratio during the quarter, we had a little higher slippage, 800+ crore. That was mainly on account of one corporate account slipping in this quarter, against which we around approximately 245 crore, against which we have already made 50% provision for that. So this was all about guidance. Now, coming to certain initiatives which bank has taken.
In the previous year, bank started with a Performance Management Solution, PMS, project for HR transformation, which was completed. Now, bank has started Project Parivartan, which is digital transformation project, where we will be digitizing our retail assets and liabilities journeys over a period of time. While at the time of launch, we have started new launches we have already made: UCO GST Smart Finance for this STP journey, pre-qualified personal loan STP journey, KCC STP journey through Jan Samarth Portal. We have revamped Shishu Mudra STP journey. We have revamped our KCC renewal up to 1.60 lakh STP journey. So all these five new journeys have already been implemented, and as on date, now total nine STP journeys are available at our in our digital platform.
Going forward, we plan to launch over 25 journeys by March 2025, and then remaining initiatives will be continued in the next year also. Bank has also participated in the global fintech initiatives like UPI Circle. Bank has already implemented that. UPI Lite Autopay top-up facility has been updated made live. Bank has also introduced loan repayment facility through BBPS. We have done tie-up with Swiggy, Zomato, Plutus for improving our visibility and debit card in the market. In order to strengthen our compliance and monitoring, we have started new transaction monitoring vertical, wherein all transaction monitoring from various verticals has been combined into one vertical.
We have launched a Pulse program, that is an alert monitoring system, which is again an integrated alert monitoring system, wherein all the alerts from different channels are coming and our teams are sitting there to monitor those alerts. We have also launched new chatbot, Uday, that is generative AI-based chatbot solution. We have also launched IVR in UCO Sampark 2.0, where our call center is now enriched with 31 different self-service options through IVR, and through IVR, we are able to service 89% of our customers. Bank has also revamped WhatsApp banking. We are providing 35 services in five languages on WhatsApp banking. Tab banking was introduced last year. Currently, we have it in, say, 1,698 branches, and we intend to cover remaining branches by March 2025.
To gather more CASA and to give focus to female customers, few new initiatives were taken. We launched a new pink basket, where three unique deposit products exclusively for women, UCO Aparajita, a savings account, UCO Jayal akshmi, current account, and UCO Sanchayika Flexi RD account was launched with special features. UCO Udaan scheme aims at providing financial support to meritorious female students for taking admission in premier educational institutions of the country with 1.10 concession in rate of interest. We have also introduced women-centric policy in the recently concluded board meeting. We are providing a special concession to home loan female borrowers, concession of 0.05%. In MSME schemes, also 0.25% concession is given.
So all these, there are another various other initiatives in IT and digital being undertaken. Bank has earmarked around INR 1,000 crore budget for the IT, of which 36% has already been incurred, and remaining we plan to incur in this half year. Many, many new projects are under RFP stage or under approval stage, so all those things will be coming in this remaining part of the year. Thank you, and this is what I have to share with you. Anything thereafter will be open to question and answers. Thank you.
Thank you, MD sir, for your opening remark. We now move to Q&A session. We will wait a minute for the question queue to assemble, after which we'll start the questions. If you wish to ask a question, raise your hand. You shall be unmuted. Question from the line of Mr. Ashok Ajmera. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir.
Good evening, sir.
Saboo Sahab, Kamble Sahab, good evening.
Good evening, sir.
Our compliments to you for the good set of numbers in this quarter also. Even the last quarter was also good, the first quarter as compared to some of the other banks, so good set of numbers, or whether you talk about the operating profit or the net profit, and even your asset quality is also improving quarter after quarter. Having said that, sir, I got just couple of observations and some questions, sir. On the credit growth side, though every bank is facing some issue on the credit side and as well as deposit side, in our case, if we take our target of 14%, because I will take the credit growth target of 14% being a UCO Bank, and I know that you can perform.
Yes.
Our total credit should be around 26,000 crore in the whole year. What we have done is only 11,000 crore so far. We are looking for about 14.5-15,000 crore of credit in the coming six months. Number one is that how sure we are about that, looking at our sanction pipeline and some of the projects which are in pipeline, the sanctions, and some of the amount which is under in pipeline for disbursements. How prepared we are, and are we sure that, yes, we will achieve this kind of credit target? Deposit, we are some more or less, you know, almost I think-
Advances.
We have out of, I mean, twenty-six thousand crores, thirteen thousand we have already got it, and we need to get only thirteen thousand six hundred sixty-six crores. So mainly on the credit side, can you throw some light on this, sir, on this question, that how do we plan to grow our credit to the target of almost about twenty-six thousand crore this year?
Thirty-six crore? No, no, no, one lakh eighty thousand, I think now. Total-
Yeah, yeah, 26,152, as per the target of 14% should be.
Yes. See, Ajmera ji, if you look at our growth, in the both the quarters, we have grown, around, six thousand crore in each quarter. Around six thousand crore.
Yes, sir, 5.91% only in the six months-
Five-
Two quarters. Yes.
Yes, yes, 5.9.
Yes.
So our target is to reach to 14%, right?
Yes.
And you all know that, second quarter, second half is always a busy season where the credit growth picks up. Now, the festival season is also there, and, lot of traction in our home loan and housing retail loan product is already there in the vehicle loan. If you see our housing loan portfolio, around 19%-20% growth is there, and in our car loan, around 38% growth is there. So these are the two major drivers for the RAM segment. Coming to corporate, lot of proposals we are getting in the corporate segment also, but wherever we are getting good margins, operating margins, only then we are going for additional facilities.
The way it is currently the projects and the sanctions are already there. Around INR 8,000 crore sanctions are already there, which, if we are able to meet our margin requirements, we will be giving a signal to release. So it's we don't feel any problem, any issue in achieving our 14% growth target. Given an opportunity, like currently we are growing around 18%, if you look at our credit growth in last four, five quarters is around 4-14% to 18%. So given an opportunity, we may grow, we may achieve even little larger the number than the 14% also. We are quite confident the way the pipeline is already built up with us.
Thanks, sir. Point well taken, sir. Sir, little bit on the advances side, the quality. We have got very good recovery in this quarter in the from the written-off account of INR 520 crore. And even otherwise also, the things are under control as regard to slippages are also concerned. So I would just like to have throw some lights on the now coming six months, that are we going to maintain the same trend from the return of accounts? And what is the pool of return of accounts which we have, the total pool, and what do you expect in the remaining two quarters of the current year? Similarly, on the treasury side, also, we are doing reasonably well. So are we expecting some kind of a windfall in the treasury?
I mean, or, I mean, treasury also nowadays it's basically, it's a part of the basic P&L of the, the income comes there as per the because of the revised norms. So on the treasury side, as well as from the recovery side, how optimistic we are, sir?
Ajmera ji, recovery this quarter we had a good recovery, and I expect that in the coming quarter also, we will have a good recovery from PEWO because there is already one account, one big account where we are expecting some recovery in this quarter. This quarter, recovery will be more or less in the similar lines. Next quarter, pipeline is there, but we are yet to rationalize that and look at the pipeline properly. But if I look at the total recovery in this half year, that is 1,729 from the ITOF, and total of recovery and upgradation is 3,000 crore, sorry, it was 1,100 crore-
Yeah
... in this half year, and full year is INR 1,700 crore. Our endeavor will be that full year we continue to maintain that last year's recovery, at least INR 1,700 crore.
Okay, that's good, sir. Just a last question in this round, sir. Some light on the restructured book, and what kind of provision on the standard restructured book, which we are having? Or are we having any buffer provision apart from the IRAC norms? Because in the restructured standard book, there is some part of the COVID provisions also, as well as non-COVID also. So some information on the overall, you know, the provision on the restructured book, standard restructured, and as well as beyond the IRAC norms, if you are having any buffer of the provision, sir.
Restructured books. Sir, restructured book, if you see our restructured book has been coming down on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Now, the total restructured book stands at 2,786 crore, as against 3,709 crore a year ago. So around 1,000 crore reduction in the restructured book is there. And COVID restructured book has also, overall, COVID restructured book has also come down by 800 crore, from 2,500 crore to 1,700 crore.
Seventeen hundred, yes.
We are maintaining normal required margin on the restructured book as per Reserve Bank of India guidelines. In addition to that, we had maintained a provision of INR 530 crore towards COVID restructuring provision, which we still continue to hold. We have not released that provision. That provision still continues to be in the books. Overall buffer which you was asking, overall buffer available to the bank, including this COVID restructuring provision, which is over and above, that includes approximately 1,000 crore. So 1,000 crore is over and above the mandatory required provision which bank is holding.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much, and all the best to you, sir. I'll try to come back again for some other minor, some information and question-
Thank you.
In case I get it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ajmera ji. We have our next question from the line of Mr. Sushil Choksey. Sir, you've been unmuted.
Sir, good afternoon. Congratulations on great stable result.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Sir, my question pertains to from your media interaction. I understand there was a single account which led to the impact on gross NPA and net NPA. Is the recovery number target of six thousand for gross NPA, can't it get better, or you want to be conservative?
See, INR 6,000 crore is our number, which we have kept for ourselves. At that time, we have not expected this account to slip, right? Having this account getting slipped, even then, we are continuing to maintain our number that we'll be targeting less than INR 6,000 crore of gross NPA.
Sir, is it a telecom account of the government entity?
Yes.
Okay. Sir, my next question is on your CD ratio and margin sustainability. And if you can throw some color on CASA, how are we shaping up? Because East India, I remember from earlier days, is a great source for CASA accounts. How are we working towards increasing CASA, keeping our margin stable between domestic and international book? With your sustainable growth and credit, which is likely to outsmart the number what you said, can I get some color on the growth path as well as on CASA?
See, if you look at our CASA, our CASA has been hovering around 37%-38% over last, I think around one and a half year. So in spite of having huge pressure on CASA, we are able to maintain CASA. To garner CASA, we have taken number of initiatives in the last year and the current year also. Last year, we introduced tab banking to reach out to the customers for opening their accounts. We revamped our salary savings account with a tiered insurance product and other inbuilt incentives to deal with our bank or maintain savings account with our bank. Then we also introduced resource vertical at our head office level. In this year, we have introduced resource vertical at a zonal office level also.
We have made a zonal resource team where they are meeting customers, and around three hundred odd staff members are engaged in reaching out to the customers at different zones, and to open new accounts, to open new deposit accounts. We have also introduced special deposit scheme of 333 days with an interest rate of 7.30%. We have also signed MOUs with some of the PSUs for their salary accounts. So the focus on CASA is very clearly, as a result, we are able to maintain our CASA ratio of 38%, number one. And another question, what the other one?
Margin.
Margin, sorry. See, margin, if you look at my margin, a year before, our margin was 2.84%, right? Now, we have improved to 3.10%. From where the improvement has come, just look at our cost of funds and yield on funds. My cost of fund has increased from 4.47 to 4.79. So that is a 32 basis points increase. Whereas my yield on funds, that has improved by 52 basis points. And how we have improved our yield on funds? That with the rebalancing of our loan products and portfolios, we have shed certain low-yielding advances, and we have concentrated on RAM segment, which is giving good yield as compared to the corporates.
You look at our ratings also. We have reduced our triple A rated advances, and double A and A has increased, and triple B. So that way, we have tried to improve our yield on advances also and yield on funds also. So with these all initiatives will continue in this quarter and coming quarters also. And our endeavor will be that we maintain our guidance for which we have given margin guidance, which we have given earlier.
So do you think interest rates scenario globally and India have peaked and treasury may reward handsomely, but where interest margins are concerned, specifically at MCLR, have we reached the peak or do you think it is still a pass-through system?
See, if you look at current economic scenario, I think there is a downtrend in the rate cut scenario in the different parts of the world. But given current situation of our country, economic situation, inflation, our RBI has not yet taken any call. I think once the economic scenario stabilizes in the country by way of inflation control, because inflation is the main target which RBI is looking at. So RBI that time, once they are comfortable, they may come out with a reduction in the repo rate also. That trend is likely to come, it is a matter of time. As soon as RBI is comfortable with the macroeconomic indicators, then they may come out. So as far as the peaking of rate of interest, I think MCLR is now almost peaked.
Maybe basis cost of funds in one month or two months, there may be some, somewhat upward revision by some of the banks, but more or less it is now peaked.
How are we benefiting in the such scenario on the treasury, profits in the second half as your CD ratio is likely to get to 75, that's what you're targeting? Are we monetizing adequate instead of just increasing our resources and redeploying towards corporate credit or retail credit?
See, uh-
Answer that question.
Yeah, tell me. Now I get.
So Choksey, yes, always we are there in the market through our treasury, and we look for the opportunities in the market. And I think the CD ratio target of around 75% is there, and we have surplus liquidity as we have our SLR more than the required level of SLR. Wherever we get opportunity or we get the maturities redemptions, we get those funds back. And then we try to redeploy into the credit to increase our NIM. As our NIM, as you have seen, improved, yield on advances has also improved. So overall NIM will be improving if we can deploy our funds into the better yielding advances.
But having said that, again, the investment portfolio will also means continue, and we will not see any drastic changes there also because we have to maintain the SLR and surplus HQLA as well for the LCR guidelines. Profitability, where there is the opportunity, bank is looking for the opportunity in the market and, not in a big way, but yes, as for the market trend, we are looking at the opportunities to book profit also wherever it is, as per our means positioning in the market and our targets. So I think overall, the scenario, as you have asked, the rate of interest scenario is still... It is unfolding.
In India, we have yet to see the rate cut cycle start because the inflationary pressures are still there and RBI is waiting for the new data set to come into the picture. And maybe the other parts of the world, they have already started cutting rates, but in India, we may have to wait for some more days. And if that rate cuts come, we all know that the investment portfolio will yield more profits if the rate is cut. So that we will see.
That will go to the-
Yeah.
Not. That will not come to PHT.
Of course.
That is-
With the new guidelines, AFS reserve is there, so HTM is only the HFT part.
HFT.
Whatever the clearly HFT part, pure HFT, under the FTTPL, that will only come into the profitability. So, that is limited, means, depending on the activity in the HFT portfolio.
Sir, can I ask one last question? How much is unavailable credit which you have sanctioned today between corporate, and what is the target on retail in the current quarter?
Sanjay, unavailable?
Available.
Unavailable. Corporate.
Eight thousand.
Choksey, around INR 8,000 crore is unavailable in the corporate segment.
Okay, sir. Thank you for answering all my questions, and good luck for the year.
We are looking for a better rate of interest. If we are, we are able to succeed, then we will discuss.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Sushil Ji. If anyone wishes to ask a question, please raise your hand. We have a next question from the line of Mr. Amit Mishra. Please go ahead, sir.
... Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, you mentioned CD ratio of 75% you are targeting. So by when will you achieve this 75%?
See, our intention is to achieve by March 2025. So that is the reason we have looked at a lower guidance for deposit growth and the higher guidance for the credit growth.
Okay. Sir, I was looking at your overseas loan book, which is around INR 24,000 crores, and there are no NPAs in that book. So do you want to build this book or reduce this book? Do you have any target in your mind? What are the margins on overseas books?
See, again, overseas book, if you look at last two quarters, we have not grown any overseas book, right? Basically, because we are not getting good margins. Once some good margin is available, definitely we will try to grow our overseas book also.
What are the current margins on overseas books?
Current margin is 1.5%. Around 1.4-1.5%.
Okay. And sir, your asset quality for the quarter was pretty stable. But just I wanted to ask, these agri slippages were higher as compared to last quarter or last year also. It was around INR 206 crores as compared to last quarter of INR 48 crores. So anything specific happened there? Because other-
Yes, sir.
Yeah, please.
Agriculture, actually, there is a phenomenon that it happens on a half-yearly basis, because its classification is on half-yearly basis. So generally, if you look at September twenty-three number, that time also, agriculture slippage was quite high, around a hundred and forty, hundred and fifty crore. Last year, same quarter.
Yes, September also.
September also?
This September
Okay, sir. Sir, one last question. How much is your gold loan book right now?
Gold loan book has touched around eight thousand crore.
INR 8,000 crore. Gold loan book?
Gold loan book.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Amit. Any other questions, raise your hand. We have our next question from the line of Mr. Sarvesh Gupta. Sir, please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Sir, I wanted to ask about the corporate slippages. This time they were around INR 324 crore. So what exactly is driving that?
See, there was one corporate account having exposure of around INR 245 crore that slipped in this quarter. So that has added to this corporate slippage.
How is the overall asset quality environment that you are foresee for the coming half year?
See, if you look at our SMA book, more than one crore, it is... Every quarter, it is coming down. Now it is around sixteen hundred crore, more than one crore. I'm talking about sixteen hundred crore, more than one crore, includes of my SMA zero, SMA one, and SMA two, and that works out to around 0.5% of my book. So no big challenge in the current scenario when my SMA, more than one crore, is very minimal.
Okay. And, sir, on margins, so we are probably on the rate cut horizon in India, and say, if RBI does a fifty basis point rate cut in the next six months, so how are we positioned for that?
See, with regard to margins, in case the rate cut is there, definitely it will have some impact on the margins. But our strategy is to improve our CASA deposit and retail term deposit, to reduce our dependence on the bulk deposit. So in that direction, the entire team is working. You will see that in spite of such a challenging environment, we are able to maintain our CASA at 38%. And as I already explained, that we have launched various new initiatives for the CASA and for the retail term deposit, to attract retail term deposit. So I believe that in case we are able to improve our CASA position and retail term deposits, I will be able to counter or able to reduce the impact of rate cut on our NIM.
Okay. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Sarvesh. We have our next question from the line of Mr. Sushil Choksey.
On the retail mix, I see our home loan, vehicle loan, personal loan, and other are growing. But looking at the growth pattern where UCO's presence is, what are we enabling that this growth number, which can be beneficial on CASA, cost saving, and various parameters, will be more sustainable with a higher trajectory?
... See, Sushil Ji, if you look at our retail growth, particularly housing and vehicle, we have been growing in housing around the last, I think, five, six quarters from 17% to 20%. And in vehicle, we have been growing from 23% to 38% in last five quarters. Definitely, it gives us a position unique positioning wherein we are able to cross-sell or garner their CASA accounts also, and third-party products also. So bank is leveraging all these opportunities. Further, what another initiative bank has taken, bank has introduced a retail hub structure, retail hub and MSME hub. Previously, only select few branches, only one-third of our branches, not even one-third of our branches were attached to hubs. Now, all branches are attached to the hub. We have retail hub, we have MSME hub.
So all branches are now in the development role, the business development. So they are garnering leads, and the leads are being sanctioned by the hubs. So definitely when they have ample time available at their disposal, when they have not to sanction, they have to only simply generate leads. So a lot of cross-sell and upsell opportunities are available with the branches, and I believe our branches will encash that opportunity and leverage our growth in retail and MSME and housing and particularly cars.
Sir, my next question is the transformation journey started by the current management team of both the YPs and yourself. What is the digital spend you've already achieved? How much is left, and when do you see that entire initiative and the transformation journey would be starting to benefit the bank, whether this year or next year?
Can I call you?
Transformation.
Yeah. See, transformation journey will help the bank in the next year in a big way. Current year, we have started just now, around a month back only, we have started our transformation journey, Project Parivartan, wherein we have taken an ambitious target of our twenty-five digitizing twenty-five journeys. So all those journeys, first we have to develop, deploy. We have to change, go to the branches for the mindset change by reaching out to the customers to subscribe to our digital products. We have already identified the Digi Champs at the branch level, who are equipped with the latest updates on the journeys which we are working on, and they will be reaching out to the customers for creating awareness about the digital journeys.
I think next year will be our big year, when we will see our digital balance sheet also on our map. So once the awareness, the journeys and then awareness, both the things are available, then digital balance sheet will be starting from the next year.
Sir, I'm going back to my earlier question, which I asked in the first round. My assumption is that ten-year yield will trade between 6.50% and 6.70% in the last quarter of the current year, that is between January and March. The RBI interest rate cut cycle may start in January to March, but not certainly. MCLR, I assume, would, you would be at a similar rate of 8.9%-9%. How much of arbitrage possibility are you sensing between your treasury book and a corporate book, where your yield on corporate may be somewhere around in the vicinity of 9%, subject to not lending to NABARD, NAFED and government company, but more of private sector, MSME portfolio, which is lending. Retail loan, you might be doing at 8.4%-8.7%.
How much of arbitrage possibility is there to balance between both?
See, if you look at our, investment book, we have good amount of investment, which is beyond our required limit also. As and when opportunity is coming, we are, liquidating the investment also. Recently also, we have taken a call to liquidate our investment prematurely, and we have booked profit also a little bit, and then we have utilized that money in lending to the large corporate and retail segment. So definitely, there is a good arbitrage opportunity available, when the treasury bill G-Sec rates are coming down, and we can lend profitably all those funds to our customers. So bank will continue to look at those opportunities in the remaining part of the year also, to, take the benefit of lower yield when we can liquidate our investments and deploy them, in the credit market.
Sir, any thinking process on buying corporate bonds which are yielding 9% kind of rates?
That process is always going on. We have been buying corporate bonds at regular intervals, wherever we feel that a good yield is there and less risk is there.
Okay. And secondly, you, sir, I had asked you a question on how much is our digital spend left in terms of value?
See, digital, total IT spend was INR 1,000 crore, out of which I think 360-odd crore, we have already, completed orders have been placed. Remaining INR 600 crore, projects are already in pipeline. They are in RFP stage, or some are in evaluation stage, some are in approval stage. So I believe by the end of this year, we will be through with this INR 1,000 crore of budget.
Sir, thank you for answering all my questions, and best wishes to Team UCO for being positive.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir. We would be taking that as the last call for today. I would like to thank UCO Bank for giving this opportunity. MD, sir, any closing remarks?
Bank has been positioning itself in the digital arena now. Earlier, we worked on the HR transformation. Now the Project Parivartan has been initiated, and we expect that the Project Parivartan will give the results in the next year, when we will be launching. We will be through our journeys by the end of this year. Bank will continue to maintain its guidance in the quarters to come, and we will make sure that whatever guidance we have given, we achieve that guidance in the quarters to come. Thank you, all. Thank you all the analysts and investors for joining our quarterly two results conference. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you to the management of UCO Bank for giving Antique Stock Broking this opportunity to host the call. We conclude the earnings call. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.