...Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Union Bank of India Earnings Conference Call for the period ended September thirtieth, twenty twenty-four. The bank is represented by the Managing Director and CEO, Ms. A. Manimekhalai, Executive Director, Shri Nitesh Ranjan, Shri Ramasubramanian S., Shri Sanjay Rudra, Shri Pankaj Dwivedi, and other members of the top management. 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ajay Bansal, Deputy General Manager. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, madam. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I, Ajay Bansal, Head of Investor Relations, welcome you all for Union Bank of India earnings conference call for the period ending September thirtieth, twenty twenty-four. The structure of conference call shall include a brief opening statement, statement by respected MD and CEO Madam, and then the floor will be open for interaction. Before getting into the conference call, I will read out the usual disclaimer statement. I would like to submit that certain statements that may be discussed during the investor interaction may be forward-looking statements based on the current expectation. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that cause the actual results to differ from the statements. Investors are therefore requested to check this information independently before making any investment or other decisions.
With this, I now request our respected MD & CEO, ma'am, for her opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Union Bank's financial results announcement for the Q2 ended September thirty, 2024. Thank you for joining us today. I trust you have had the opportunity to review our results. I will provide you a brief overview of our performance and key highlights for this quarter. Before diving into our financials, let's touch upon the operating environment. The banking industry has seen credit growth outpace deposit growth, creating a competitive scenario for liabilities. However, the gap between credit and deposit growth is narrowing as per the latest RBI data. Now, let's take a look at our financial highlights for the quarter ended September thirty, 2024. We have achieved our highest ever operating profit and net profit for a quarter. Our operating profit reached INR 8,113 crores, reflecting a 12.4% growth.
Net profit stood at INR 4,720 crores, showing a 34.4% year-on-year growth. ROA has improved to 1.35%, and ROE has reached 19.10% for Q2 FY 2025. Our capital adequacy ratio improved to 17.13%, with the CET1 ratio increasing to 13.88% as at September 2024. Gross NPA has reduced by two hundred and two basis points, while net NPA is reduced by thirty-two basis points. The PCR is improved by seventy-six basis points to 92.79%. Our cost-to-income ratio improved to 43.56% for Q2 FY 2025, down from 44.08%. That is, what was in the last quarter. Our Q2 performance is broadly in line with our FY 2025 guidance.
Deposits grew by 9.2% year-on-year and advances by 9.6%, while deposit growth is within our target range of 9%-11%. Advances growth has been slightly muted than what the target that we had given. In the advances segment, we saw 12.3% growth in RAM lending, while corporate lending grew at moderate 6.3%. Our NIM stood at 2.97% for H1 FY 2025, and 2.90% for half year ended in FY 2025, aligning with our guidance of 2.8%-3%. The decline in NIM is primarily due to adjustments in penal charges as per RBI guidelines and a drop in our dummy ledger recovery.
Asset quality continues to improve, with gross NPA reducing to 4.36%, aligning closely with our target of below 4% by March 2025. For Q2 FY 2025, gross recovery was INR 3,932 crores, which is lower than slippages of INR 5,219 crores, mainly to a large ticket slippage from a single major account. In S1 FY 2025, we achieved a gross recovery of INR 7,300 crores, in line with our annual target of INR 16,000 crores. Total slippages stood at INR 7,537 crores, as against our guidance of INR 11,500 crores. We have consistently met and often exceeded our targets, and we are confident in our ability to achieve the same for FY 2025. We remain committed to the sustainable-...
Ensuring a balanced focus on both top line and bottom line performance. We prioritize profitability and efficiency over chasing growth at any cost. Our CASA and retail term deposits account for 72% of our total deposits, a ratio we have maintained consistently. In our advances portfolio, we have targeted retail to corporate ratio at 55 to 45, and as of September twenty twenty-four, we are at 57, 43. Let me share some of the significant developments during the quarter. We achieved the second position in the CE 7 ranking for the Q1. We ranked first under the theme banking towards Digital Bharat, and second in customer service excellence, effective risk management, and developing employees for emerging banking priorities. We have opened 122 branches this financial year up to September, including 12 focused branches in rural centers.
We launched the Union Leap, a CASA transformation and business build project, deploying 1,250 relationship managers to drive new business acquisition and engage existing customers. Up to September 30, 2024, we added over 3.48 million CASA accounts, and our Vyom mobile registrations reached 29.1 million. Additionally, we onboarded 123,000 clients through our digital savings accounts. We introduced several new digital journeys, such as the PM Vishwakarma STP, KCC renewable, 10 lakhs, GST loan STP for fresh sanctions up to 1 crore, and Union Nari Shakti STP for new to bank customers. The Bank introduced the UPI interoperable cash deposits into CRM, UPI Lite auto top up, UPI Circle functionality, and the ability to deposit into PPF and SSA accounts.
We inaugurated two rural self-employed training institutes in Mauganj, Madhya Pradesh and Palnadu, Andhra Pradesh, both fully managed by women staff to support women entrepreneurs. All rating agencies upgraded the bank over the past year. In FY twenty-five, S&P Global revised our outlook to positive, with a triple B minus positive rating, while IN rating and Brickwork were upgraded by one notch to triple A with a stable outlook. We've also been added in the Nifty Next 50 Index. To conclude, Union Bank has consistently demonstrated strong, stable, and sustainable performance. Our key initiatives, including enhanced underwriting capabilities, centralization, verticalization, CASA transformation, and a robust assurance framework, are yielding positive results. We have significantly strengthened our digital capabilities through the Vyom app, digital onboarding, straight-through processing journey, fintech partnerships, analytics, and data lakes. We are committed to building on these initiatives to enhance our performance and customer experience further.
With that, we are now open to questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mahrukh Adajania, from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Ma'am, why the slippage? So I have two related questions. Firstly, that the slippage we are seeing in LC and others of INR 34 billion should be from a single account that is in the news and that was discussed even last quarter, correct? Is that correct?
Yes, ma'am. It is only from a single account.
Okay. Now, the thing is that last quarter, you had disclosed that, you know, a couple of accounts had come to the SMA list, right? And that is why there was a sharp increase in SMA. So if something has slipped from SMA to slippage, I'm guessing that this account was identified as SMA, then why has the SMA figure gone up quarter on quarter by INR 7 billion? It should come down by the amount of slippage, correct? That's the other question.
Madam, that is, you see, this is only a, again, a couple of accounts, which was there. There was a one or two days delay in quarter two, which has come, and it hasn't recovered. So it was on thirtieth September. It was the position actually.
Okay. But on 30th September, the account that appears to have slipped in the corporate slippage was SMA last quarter, correct?
No, you see, actually, in the last, if you are looking at the quarter one, we made provision for two accounts.
Correct.
Out of that, one has slipped in the current quarter.
Correct. Correct.
Another one is continuing in SMA.
Mm-hmm.
It was not there as an SMA on March 31, 2024.
... Sorry, the-
See, another account, it was not a SMA as on thirty-sixth, though it has defaulted in some other bank.
Okay. So, you made provisions on two, of which one was not SMA in the Q1?
Yes. Yes.
Now the increase in SMA is driven by only that account or by a couple of accounts?
No, another account also, but that is only because one or two days delay, it has come back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so which sectors would that belong? It's corporate, government. What kind of sectors would the SME that got upgraded subsequently belong to?
These are state government, ma'am, and these have come back to normalcy in this quarter.
Okay. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashok Ajmera, from Ajcon Global Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ma'am, and all of our friends.
Good afternoon, Ajmera Ji.
Yeah, yeah, just good afternoon. The afternoon just started. Okay. Ma'am, compliments to you, especially as regard the profitability of the bank is concerned. You are very, very conscious about it, and quarter after quarter, you are declaring a very good profit. So my compliments to the entire team and you, for the same. I think our profit after tax has come up to almost 4,700 crore. I think one of the highest quarterly profit. Having said that, ma'am, I have got some questions on your comments and maybe my concern on especially the business growth. So while you say that year on year, I mean, if you take the whole year, then it's okay, 9%, 7%, that's okay.
But if you look at the current half year of FY 2025, our deposit has grown only by 1.67%, and our credit has grown only by 2.5%. So especially on the credit side, if you look at it, if you take your target of 13%, which means about INR 1,17,000 crore in this financial year should be, whereas the total credit expansion is only INR 23,947 crore. It means in the remaining six months, starting from October to March now, you will have to have the credit increase by about INR 93,000 crore. Similar story on deposit side also. So how confident and sure you are that in almost remaining five months now, one month, of course, you must have done some business. INR 93,000 crore is not a small amount.
How do you see the visibility from the sanction pipeline, from the new proposals which are coming in, which are in the second sanctioning stage, and the proposals which were sanctioned are already in the disbursement stage? Can you give some little more detailed breakup on this, that how are we going to achieve this INR 93,000 crore credit in this? This is a very, very important point which will take the bank forward. This is my question.
Sure. Yeah, sure, Ajmera Ji, I will answer your question. First, I will look at the, you know, the low growth in the advances. The corporate loan, especially on T-bill linked loans, we were not very aggressive. We, we let go some of the advances, which were yielding us, you know, a slightly lesser rate of interest. We will build this book where when we had the. We had built this book when we had a surplus liquidity in the system. So we have brought down our TBLR book to a considerable extent. Our MCLR book has also been reduced, from whatever it was, in December to, you know, December 2023 to, now. We have brought it down considerably. That's the area where we have, you know, why we have declined on our corporate book.
Now, if you're asking us with regard to what is our pipeline pending for disbursement and sanctions, if you remember, we had set a guidance of limit to 13% credit growth for the FY 2025. We have almost about 25,000 crores credit for disbursement and sanctions, out of which 36,000 crores is pending for disbursement and 39 crore of sanctions is pending for, you know, for sanctions, actually. Now, we have on corporate side, we have good sanctions under road, power, real estate, telecom, iron and steel, cement, all these areas we are seeing, you know, we have got good sanctions. We are also focusing on sunrise sectors like renewable energy, EVs, semiconductors, data centers, tourism. These are the areas that we are looking at. So we hope that, you know, with the...
We also are hoping that there would be CapEx, you know, coming back into this quarter, and so that we can revise whatever sanctions we have got on hand and see that they are dispersed. That is with our credit growth. With regard to advance, the corporate growth, of course, we had given a guidance of 9%-11%, and we have stuck to that guidance. We have, you know, done about 9.46% growth in our the corporate front. However, you know, CASA has, you know, declined a little, but if you look at the numbers that we have, we have added absolute numbers to the close to about INR 8,000 crores in our CASA book, and retail term deposits has also seen a healthy growth.
We have taken a lot of measures to see that our CASA increases, like we have opened 122 branches, out of which 12 branches are in the metro centers, the premium branches have been opened. We have strengthened our BC model, we have got more than 21,000 BC models. We have launched special deposit schemes so that we can garner more deposits. We have also, you know, separately introduced something called Excellence Cell in the bank, which is dedicated to give, you know, top-notch service to our HNI customers. So we are looking at lot many things like this. We are also having a micro market strategy. We are focusing on growth hotspots in the country. We've identified about 51 growth hotspots in the country where we will be seeing good growth.
So overall, I can say that the bank is, you know, our focus is very, we would like to increase our deposits, we would like to increase our customer base. In the very beginning, I have told you that we added close to about 34.80 lakh CASA accounts, out of which, you know, about 15 lakh customers are from the rural and semi-urban areas. So these many strategies that we have got, I'm sure that we will be able to increase my advances portfolio and my deposit portfolio also. Thank you.
Thank you, ma'am, for such an elaborate answer, and I'm sure with you being there all the time, you have been performing better than the targets, and this year also, you may do some magic to reach that figure of the credit and deposit both. Having said that, ma'am, while we are comfortable on the recovery front target of 16,000, we have already achieved 7,300, so we are more or less there, but on the slippage front, out of 11,500 crore of target for FY 2025, we have already, I think, slipped about 7,537 crore, and we have a very strong SMA pipeline, which says that lot of these accounts, SMA-2 is also 1,664 crore.
So going forward, on the slippages front, are we comfortable? I mean, our slippages in the coming six months now, the remaining six months will not be more than four thousand five hundred or four thousand crore, so as to meet the target of- I mean, to be limited to the target of eleven thousand five hundred crore. And coupled with that, one more question, ma'am, because I may not be allowed to ask in this round of the question: if you look at the note number twenty, in the last June quarter, we said that we have done the- we have made the additional provision on Prudential basis on advances of one thousand two hundred and thirty-nine crore, which has come down in this quarter to five hundred and fifty-three point nine three crores.
In fact, we have written back an additional prudential provision of INR 685 crore in this quarter. So had that not been there, our NPA provisions would have gone up, so it means it would have been INR 3,200 crore. So this, what is this mystery? I mean, why have we reduced this provision which was already made in June two thousand and twenty-four, of INR 1,239, now reduced to INR 553 crore?
So I will answer the question with regard to slippage first. Though we had given a guidance of INR 11,500 crores, we are, you know, already across the quarter, we crossed above INR 7,300 crores in this quarter itself, in the Q2 itself. But, you know, if you see, the only one large slippage, that's the reason that those slippages are quite high in this quarter. If you look at the actual slippages that happened in this quarter, it is just about INR 1,604 crores. So slippages are under control. If not for that one big slippage, we would have contained our slippages to a very great extent.
And with regards to what is talking about, you know, the second part of the question is also answered, because of this reason only, you know, the provision that we made in the Q1 of INR 1,200 crores, because that slipped into an NPA, that's the reason that it is showing that numbers.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, ma'am, if time permits, I will come again. I've got some more small two, three questions and observations. Thanks.
Sure, sir. Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jay Mundra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, good afternoon, ma'am, and, thanks for the additional disclosures. Ma'am, just wanted to check on, you know, on the account that slipped, how much have we provided? And what is your sense on the eventual haircut or the timeline of the resolution, because that account is supposed to be sovereign, so, if you can share your thoughts there.
Jay, we have provided close to the extent of 20% as per the norms. And with regard to recovery part of it, you know, lot many things are happening at the background, at the government level, at the bank level. Many things are in process, and we hope that the recovery comes very soon.
All right. But what could be the eventual haircut, ma'am? Could it be less than twenty, or it could be even more than twenty?
No, we are not talking about any haircut as of now, Jay, on this account.
Okay. Sure. Second, ma'am, the account that is still the second account, right? Which was talked about last quarter, is the account still in SMA zero, right?
Yes. Yes, it is.
Okay. And ma'am, so how is it possible, in the sense that last quarter it was also relatively stressed? ... and ninety days of pause and still in SMA. Is there some dispensation yet?
Yeah, Jay, if you're looking at it last quarter, it had started showing signal in the other banks, though it was not SMA there, it started showing signals in the other banks. So we, as a prudential measure, we have done our provisioning, standard of provisioning, we have done it. To fill the, the unit is running, cash flows are there, we are able to pay, but it is in some way, some recovery plans are being worked out.
Okay. So there is no dispensation here, it's just that as of now, the account is still in SMA zero?
Yeah, there is nothing. Nothing.
We have around INR 550 crores standard asset provisioning against-
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. And secondly, sir, this, we understand that margins are okay, but, you know, accounting-wise, there is a change, and hence, the final interest has eleven basis point impact. So thanks for that disclosure. But if I remember correctly, this new circular was effective from April first, right? So how should... I mean, why is the impact in this quarter, and how should one look at it in the next quarter?
No, no. So, Jay, yeah, yeah, you're right, it is April first, but the higher impact came in this quarter. There was not much of an impact in the April to June quarter. But in the July to September quarter, the impact was higher, so it was about 11 basis points in the September quarter. And for the sixth month, the impact is six basis points.
Right. So even in Q3, if hypothetically, a person is charged minimal interest, then this may impact Q3 also, right? I mean, this is not done.
Yes, yes, yes. But it will continue to be other income. Yeah, but, you know, Jay, it's really only a movement from net interest income to non-interest income. So, I mean, there's no change in the operating profit, it's just a movement between lines, like, as you're aware.
Right. Thanks for the clarification. Last thing, sir, the cost of deposit has increased, right? QoQ, at least, that looks slightly steep. We have been very calibrated in the deposit growth. CASA is also reasonably okay. What explains the rise in cost of deposit? Thank you.
Jay, the cost of deposits, YOY has almost increased by 35 basis points. Now, the bank had, you know, the slow rate of growth in CASA, that's another reason for this increase in cost of deposits. Plus, the bank had also introduced a few specifically designed products for, you know, garnering retail term deposits. This was the high-growth deposits that we had taken up. It's not because that we had taken, you know, bulk deposits, but it was only for the growth of retail deposits that we had taken. So that is the reason for the increase in the cost of deposits.
Understood, ma'am. That is very, very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Aggarwal from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, good afternoon, everyone. Ma'am, I have two questions-
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. I would request you to please use your handset.
Hello, is it better now?
Yes, sir.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I have two questions. One is, ma'am, if you can talk about how much is the interest reversal this quarter? Because with this large, like, corporate slippage, has the margin been further impacted due to that, or is this the, like, the base that we need to work forward with in the next quarter?
The interest reversal from this large account is about INR 35 crores.
Okay, so not much. Okay.
Yeah, not much, yeah.
Right, ma'am. And secondly, ma'am, is there any lumpy recovery that we are looking at? Because we have maintained our recovery guidance for the year, while first half is tracking well, but we carry 100% provisions on the NCFA book, given the SR book is fully provided. So any recoveries that we are expecting in the next two quarters?
We have a very healthy, you know, book of about INR 81,000 crores, and we hopefully want to get some good recovery from these accounts. So not many things are happening at this front to recover from the TW, or, you know, technically written off accounts. And we also have the bankers, you know, put a lot of efforts in, you know, one-time settlement, actually. And SARFAESI, we have done very well under SARFAESI. We have done under OTS, we have brought out a scheme for INR one crore and below accounts, and we have, in this half year, settled close to 250,000 accounts. And that is one area where we are seeing good recovery. SARFAESI also, I think among the public sector banks, we are one of the highest number of SARFAESI options we have done.
That is another place we have seen. But with regard to bigger recoveries, lumpy recovery, we hope that, you know, there are some recoveries from NARCL and NCLT.
Right. And the last question is on the net profits that you have reported, which is a very sharp jump, like almost 28% sequential increase. So, like, this is a ROE of 1.3 plus, and so how should we look at it? Why did we not use this extra profit this quarter to make provisions, given that SMA number is still unchanged despite this slippage? So what is the thought process behind this high profits?
Yeah, so Nitin, you know, we did the standardized provisioning in the last quarter. At this stage, we did not, you know, see a need for an incremental provision. Our provision coverage ratio anyway stands at about 92.5%. So we thought that we won't make any additional provision for this quarter. If there is a requirement, we will look at provisions in subsequent quarters, but we did not see a need to make additional provisions this quarter.
Okay, got it. Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rakesh Kumar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Mr. Rakesh, I would request you to unmute your line and speak, please. Due to no response from the current participant, we will move on to the next participant. The next question is from the line of Clyton Fernandes from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. I'm audible?
Sir, I would request you to please use your handset.
Okay, thank you. Is it better now?
Yes, sir.
My question is actually on credit cost.
We have lost the connection of the current participant. We will move on to the next participant. The next follow-up question is from the line of Ashok Ajmera from Ajcon Global Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving this opportunity again. Ma'am, if you look at the note number 15, it says that in this quarter, one SR, new SR has been added. I would just like to know, the amount in the account of for this SR, and how much... What were the outstanding and, how much amount, for which the SR has been issued? Because 15% must have been the cash, if it is NARCL, or what is the status of this SR?
Ajmera, I will connect with you offline on this one.
Pardon?
I will connect with you offline on this one, this query of yours.
No, the details are not presently with us. We will connect to you offline.
All right, ma'am, there is no issue. Yeah, so my question was also on one of the, my colleague, which asked and he went out of the line, is, increase in the credit cost. So, to 1.09% from 0.73% in last quarter. So what is the overall target of the, credit cost for the whole FY 2025, ma'am, on this?
No, credit cost, we would like to keep it at one or below one anytime, and that is how it was, you know, behaving for all this quarters. But for that one slippage that happened in this quarter, that's the reason that, you know, the credit cost has shot up. Otherwise, it was always under control and below 1%.
Okay. Ma'am, as usual, you have one question on the treasury front. Now, with, you know, all kind of different views coming and even the honorable RBI governor soon also looking at the increase in the inflation rate and, you know, earlier the expectation of rates coming down, and now recently again reading a statement even after taking a pause, again, to be very, very little more, okay. So what are our views on going forward on the treasury and the performance of the treasury, looking at the rate scenario in the country by our I mean Reserve Bank of India, not comparing with what the US has? What are our views going forward on the profit income from the treasury and also revaluation of the assets and others?
Ajmera, thank you very much for the question. As we projected during the Q1 of the financial year, that lot of things will come into action, like indexation, bond indexation and borrowing cut and all those things, and subsequently, a rate cut by Federal Reserve in September, 50 basis points instead of 25 basis points. Subsequently, European Central Bank and RBI also cut the rate by 25 and 50 basis points. RBI stands on the outlook from neutral to accommodation. These all given a clear indication about the outlook, very good in the futuristic view of the market.
Subsequently, during the recent conversation, there is a clear-cut indication that inflation is very high, and RBI may not be in a position to cut the rate in the near future unless the probability of very visible. But there are some political situations within Federal Reserve in India also, that election is matter. All those things given a mixed reaction into the market. But however, the global condition as well as Indian market conditions are very favorable in the coming days, because after the, usually, the market move after the Diwali, the New Year, the market react in a positive manner because of the ample liquidity availability and stability of the rupee, because in spite of INR 40,000-50,000 crores of outflow in the FY on account of the
... redemption of the equity, still the rupee is at a level of 84 level. That gives a clear indication in the market as well as to the market participation, that there will be stability in the liquidity as well as interest rate outlook. We are hopeful that we have positioned ourselves in the coming days to take the advantage of the market. Whatever the things have happened, whether on the projection, we have booked the profit. In the next two quarters also, we take a defensive and positive view of all those factors and give a decent 20%-25% growth in the treasury income.
Oh, that's good, Dakar, always very positive and your actions are definitely is getting good profits to the bank. So thank you very much for this elaborate commentary on that. Thank you, ma'am, for this second opportunity. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next follow-up question is from the line of [Unclear], from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you. I just wanted to check that, last quarter, the penal interest was applicable only on incremental loans and this quarter it's on outstanding loans. Is that understanding correct? So then-
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
That's-
That's correct.
Okay, so then next quarter, incrementally, the impact should be lower. It will continue, but it should be a lower impact, right? Just on NII, I know it comes back as non-interest, but just checking.
Yeah, it should. Yeah, we will, of course, you know, have a deeper look at that, but yeah, it could be lesser. But, you know, the impact will still be there and, you know, it's probably higher than Q1.
Right. Right. Got it. And then, if you just see the other interest, right? Other interest as in that, you know, interest from interbank funds and, maybe, RBI, it's gone up by INR 1 billion. So that's just because of liquidity or what?
It is on account of the available liquidity surplus that has been deployed to get a decent return, madam.
Okay, so the effect of income will be how much from that?
So that will be around INR 700-INR 750 crores.
That is the same like last quarter?
Yeah, yeah, it will be there.
Okay. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dixit Doshi from Whitestone Financial Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, can you give a break-up of our MCLR-linked and external benchmark-linked loans?
Yeah, MCLR is about 47%. That's the breakup, and the remaining 49% is EBLR, 43% is EBLR. Out of that, full 29 and 17 is EBLR. The rest is, you know, base rate and other rates.
Okay. Now, my second question is regarding your outlook on the NIM. So where do you see our NIMs over the next three, four quarters? Because even without the interest rate cut by the RBI, we are seeing the pressure on the NIM. So if not in December, let's say in January, February, we will see a rate cut. So how do you see your NIM over the next two, three quarters?
Yeah, we had given a guidance at the beginning of the year that the NIM would be in the range of 2.8%-3%. And currently, our NIM is about 2.97%, and with a good MCLR group that we have, we will be able to keep our NIM at that range only, 2.8%-3%.
Okay. Okay, that's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashlesh Sonje from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, team, congratulations. Couple of questions-
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. I would request you to please use your handset.
I hope this is better. Couple of questions from my side. Firstly, on this PSU exposure default, it seems that the government is now fine with PSU entities defaulting on bank loans. How does it change your view on lending to PSU entities going ahead?
See, we have to understand that the default can happen from any, whether in the private or PSU. It is under some of the critical areas because of that it is happening. We also. There is no special dispensation is being given by the bank in appraising or underwriting the PSU loans also. So we follow the same structures only, and we are doing it. So I don't find any difference in underwriting or if there is any separate, separately we are doing any underwriting standards for the PSU. So this is a normal business risk which the banks are undertaking, and the pricing also is depending on that only.
Understood. Sir, and just to clarify, in the past, have you experienced a loss on any of your PSU exposures in the history?
No, I'm not able to get the question.
PSU exposures.
Hmm?
Any PSU exposure in the past?
No, I think some long time back, there were one or two there, actually. Yeah.
Okay, understood. And second question on the cost of deposits. What proportion of your term deposits are yet to be repriced fully to the fresh TD rates?
... No, any, all the extra for your, you know, core deposits of CASA, the retail term deposits will be repriced, every, you know, as and when the date of contract comes in, it has to be repriced.
Okay, but any sense of-
But one thing is, you know, most of our deposits, 70% of my deposits are, you know, in the one-year range. So, after a year it will come up for repricing.
Okay, understood. And last one is on my question. Under your fee-based income, there is an item called others, which has increased 50% QQ to INR 1,167 crores. Is it fair to assume that this is the penal charges related income?
Yeah, yeah. Penal charges is a part of that, that others. You're right.
Okay, understood. Those were all the questions I had. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. The next follow-up question is from the line of Dixit Doshi from Whitestone Financial Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just one clarification. So the account which got slipped is PSU, but the account, the other account, which is in the SMA, that's also PSU or that is some private account?
Yeah, that is also PSU only.
And both are state government or central government, central PSU?
PSU is a central government, you know.
Okay, so the one which is slipped is central government, and the other one is a state government.
The both are-
No, no, no. State, that is a different context. Other than these, these two, there were some one or two, one or two accounts which the state government what we are given. It was for one or two days, it came as a SMA on September, which was cleared subsequently.
Okay. Thank you. That's it from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sushil Choksey from Indus Equity Advisors. Please go ahead.
Congratulations to Team Union for a stable result.
Thank you, Sushil.
First question is credit visibility in terms of sanction pipeline which is unavailable, and what kind of visibility for the growth in the second half, specifically in view of the guidance which you've given to the previous questions?
Okay, we have given a guidance of 11%-13%. We have got a healthy pipeline, actually. If you see our sanctions, you know, in this quarter, we've got about INR 76,000 crore of sanctions for the current quarter for this year. And out of this, 73,600 crore is pending for disbursement. So, you know, we have got a healthy pipeline also, and we hope that, you know, if the capital cycle comes back, we will be able to disburse much faster and whatever the sanction limits that we have got, that also, you know, quickly disburse.
Ma'am, the visibility is more coming from private sector or public sector?
It's more on the, you know, public sector. We have growth and some of the private sectors also in the area of real estate, telecom, INFC, sunrise sectors like the renewable energy, semiconductors, data centers, tourism. There are many areas that we have given. Ports are there. So, so many areas we have given our sanctions.
Ma'am, how is the visibility in the festive season, where retail loans are concerned, specifically car loans, housing loans, with the environment being so competitive and rates being offered by majority banks are pretty low, so how is the visibility there?
In retail loans, we have grown last quarter in the range of 5.88%.
Sushil, actually, we have done very well in the last quarter in the sector of retail loans. Home loans and the vehicle loans, we saw about close to 15% growth and a very good growth in our education loan sector also. Festive seasons are usually the time when, you know, retail registers a higher growth, and we hopefully want to see a better growth in our vehicle loan sector, home loan sector in this quarter also.
Ma'am, my next question is more pertaining to treasury, so you can answer or Mr. Bansal can answer.
Yeah, Mr. Bansal is there to answer.
Ma'am, the world expects little volatility with US presidential election. RBI governor has made very specific that early rate cut is not required, but it seems that 2025 rate cut is certain, maybe in the Q1 or later part. In view of the volatility which is there in the money market, like by treasury and exchanges both, how are we garnering to position ourself by encashing sufficient treasury and converting into corporate loans or retail loans, where the arbitrage is visible at 1.7%-3%, depending what loans are you sanctioning?
...As far as volatility is concerned, yes, after the government statement and the U.S. elections outcome, there will be clarity on the volatility. Till that time, expectation of the futuristic things happening, market will position themselves in the exchange market, but as far as India is concerned, RBI is quite vigilant to have a stability in the exchange rate in spite of so much volatility in the global exchange rate, but the Indian rupee is very stable, depreciated to INR 84-84.10 level. That indicates a clear-cut direction from the Reserve Bank that they want to stabilize the rupee.
Once the rupee stability happens, almost all other factors like liquidity, interest rates, and various other factors, in spite of the geopolitical conditions and crude oil prices uptick and global imbalances, still Indian conditions are far favorable. We at treasury, along with the relationship team, coordinate with the various corporates to encourage the benefit of getting the more and more business opportunities in respect of the foreign exchange, interest rate products and other sectors, so that we can definitely margin ourselves and generate additional fee income by way of exchanging the information and timely interaction with them, and giving the market outlook to generate additional business, as well as overall growth in both treasury credit and whatever the aspect available from the segment.
The foreign exchange income affects arbitrage income, which was very sustainable compared to other banks, likely to be visible in the second half?
Yeah, because this depends on the liquidity condition. We are having comfortable liquidity, and there is a good arbitrage opportunity available because expectation of the interest rates are cut in the US by 200 basis points in the next one year. So there is a spike in the premium market that will be able to generate decent arbitrage as and when the liquidity available into the system.
That this is the first season and the year to come for Union Bank.
Yes.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Just before that, you know, there was a question from Ajmera Ji on that, on the SR in note number fifteen. So, you know, that covers that question as well.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for joining on the call. As we have discussed in the call that the bank's performance in the Q2 has been in line with the guidance. And there were certain development during the quarter in terms of the slippage of one large account, which also we had guided actually in the con call of the Q1. Other than that, everything has been in line. Also that all the initiatives that bank has taken during the current year, particularly in terms of CASA mobilization and which we have spoken earlier also.
Hopefully, in the second half of the year, we should see good outcome out of that, as well as and some of the steps that we have taken for MSME loan growth, both in terms of the product and the reach out through specific branches. I think that should also see the positive outcome. And thirdly, on the digital area also, we have taken several initiatives. We have been talking about that. Hopefully, in the second half that we are in, we'll see some of these getting rolled out for our customers and creating value for the bank. So thank you once again for joining and for your feedback.
Thank you, everyone.
On behalf of Union Bank of India, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.