AU Small Finance Bank Limited (AUBANK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to AU -- and welcome to AU Bank's Earnings Call for the fourth quarter of FY '21. We thank you all for taking the time to join this call, and I hope you're all safe and well. On the call today, we have our MD and CEO, Mr. Sanjay Agarwal; our Executive Director, Mr. Uttam Tibrewal; and a few members of our senior management team. I would now like to invite Mr. Gaurav Jain, our group Head of IR from the MD's office for the opening remarks.

Thank you, Aseem. Good morning, everyone, and I hope that you're all as and healthy. Amidst the ongoing challenging environment, we wanted to share our reflections on our performance during FY '21. Overall, despite the challenging context, especially in the first half of FY '21 our performance, has been extremely resilient. We were able to keep our asset quality in check, strengthen our balance sheet, increase granularity of our deposits, and significantly bolster our branch banking and digital properties. I'll take a few minutes to share some color around these points. When the pandemic hit last year, we took a number of steps to address the challenges that arose. First thing we decided to do was caring for our employees wellbeing. We started initiatives like COVID related insurance and ensured no lay-offs were made, and made the usual disbursements and around increments and bonuses as we had previously planned. We also ensured that they were -- we were there for our customers and maintained constant touch with them through the pandemic. On the financial front, we maintained excess liquidity with average LCR in first half of FY '21 at around 150% versus the regulatory minimum requirement of 80%. We took accelerated provisions and further strengthened our balance sheet by raising capital and selling Aavas shares. Despite the challenging circumstances, our performance was very resilient. We increased our customer base to over 20 lakhs customers. We increased our deposits by 38% and improved CASA ratio from 14% to 23%. Our cost of funds reduced by 86 bps, which allowed us to maintain stable spreads. We increased our AUM by 22% despite muted disbursement in the first half. We delivered a very resilient ROE of 12%, excluding the one-off gains from the sale of our stake, and 23.4%, including profit from Aavas. Despite reaching all of this, despite taking accelerated provisions of INR 380 crores, overall, our performance has significantly increased our confidence in our customer segments, asset class and credit underwriting. Further, we continued to invest in building our franchise. Our people strength increased to 22,500 employees, and we expanded our brand's presence and open 27 new branches. We now have 744 touch points in 15 states and 2 union territories. I'm also pleased with the progress we made towards becoming a tech led bank. We launched our SuperApp, complete suite of payments solutions, Credit Cards, Video Banking, UPI QR in Q3 and are working on adding new products and service their needs. We also launched video banking UPI QR and continued to increase our internal digitization. Coming to the topic, which probably would be of most interest, asset quality. Our gross NPA went up to INR 1,500 crores, which is 4.3% of gross advances, up from 3.7% in Q3 on a pro forma basis. The increase was driven by 1.5% pool of customers who are less than 90 DPD and paying but were once NPA, and have been now tagged as NPA. We expect majority of this ONAN pool to regularize over time. The 90-plus DPD NPA has reduced from 3.3% to 2.7% quarter-on-quarter. It is important to note that our collection efforts have been lower than usual due to stay on NPA classification and also our approach towards our generally impacted borrowers. Overall, given the segment we operate in, which is reflected in our yield, and the lower collection efforts, we strongly feel that we have done well in this challenging environment. Situations on the ground are evolving with the second wave of infections. Our on the ground feedback suggests that situation in core markets is relatively more stable compared to the urban markets from a health care point of view. We are hopeful that with the ongoing vaccination drive and actions taken by the government, situations will stabilize in the near future. In the interim, we will maintain a positive stance on disbursements but continue investing to build our franchise and technology. In light of the volatile situation around COVID-19 and the uncertainty it creates, the Board of Directors of the bank has considered it prudent to not propose any dividend for the year ended March 31, 2021. Our recent capital raise strengthens our position to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead of us. We feel truly humbled be able to serve the nation as an essential service provider in these trying times. With this, we can now move on to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Bhavik Dave from Nippon India Mutual Fund.

I just wanted to understand your views on incremental asset quality in the sense, we had INR 1,000 crore kind of NPL and INR 500 crore deferreds added during the quarter, I wanted to understand -- I understand that we've given some details on the [ 551 ] INR crores that we have had to recognize in NPL because of daily stamping. But what is your -- and we still provided 30-odd percent on this as well. So I wanted to understand how is the different -- how is this pool different that we need to provide 30-odd percent on this as well? And if they are starting to repay or some of them have already repaid? And secondly, going forward, with the COVID wave in continuation with what is happening currently, how do we think about our customer segment and asset quality of the -- for the year FY [ '22 ] as a whole? So just what your best judgment will help in -- on the asset quality front? That's my first question.

Bhavik, I hope everybody is -- stay safe and healthy, very tough times, but we'll all have to make it -- navigate it together. So Bhavik, as we commented on last call in January, that we are seeing a very strong recovery, and that actually continues for all of the quarters. And we actually have an average collection efficiency of last quarter is north of 120%. And second, in March, we actually done [ 112% ], which is one of the best of being flat in terms of [ liquidity ]. All these tenor of gains are [ first tied ]. And so I personally believe, barring Supreme court, this is we came so late, the entire market was very positive till March. Customers were able to build their business again. They were able to build their sustainability and we're seeing that. And if you really see the data very carefully, then you will find that our pro forma NPA which was actually 90 days DPD as on December, has gone to a better number now because that has not reduced. So in that comparison, we have done fairly well. But of course, we also have to obey the Supreme Court orders and then we have to classify all NPAs from day one. So that has increased our gross NPL by close to INR 400 crores, INR 500 crores. And that helped in our vision, those customers [Audio Gap] fair enough because we have paid up some of the amounts in last [ 13 ] months after the moratorium. And if you really see the hold details there, how much is the liquidity, how much is the current DPD, you will find a lot of comfort there. And in overall also, we have in our INR 1,500 crore NPL, we have close to 65,000 customers. So that makes us average ticket of INR 2 lakhs and that is secured and we will also appreciate that till last, we were not having any very legalized way to recover your money because a lot of -- if you are not able to file any kind of legal structure or we are able to push the recovery means in that quarter, but after that quarter, of course, we were allowed, but now certainly this COVID has come back. So it will take some more time to really have very hardcore recovery on those accounts. But I'm pretty sure that at with the time, those customers will be able to sustain themselves and will pay us at last. In terms of future guidance, again, it's very difficult as the developing issues, COVID in last 2 weeks has given us a mean in terms of the continuity has dampened that thing, people's confidence has gone down, our own team, the external customers. But April actually has not been too bad in terms of vaccine effectivity but very difficult to comment for the north of this quarter, obviously, because I think we need to settle down COVID first and then actually getting through with our business.

Sir, in this INR 500-odd crores, will we be able to -- like there was a pie chart which talks about 62% of the customer in the 61 to 90 DPD. So that might be a little high-risk for the remaining 38%-odd customers. Do you think that will be -- that can be pulled back in maybe the next couple of quarters? Or do you think that, that will also create some more time for this -- for this INR 500-odd crores number to also come off materially at this point in time?

Bhavik, with this question, I believe we have given our commentary on there. If it bothers you, we need to have a little patience. But I can only say is that these customers have paid us substantially well from September to March in those testing time. Average ticket size is very low, it's secured. And of course, the breakup is also very supportive that about 13% of customers are current, 1 to 30 DPD is 9%. So overall, it looks okay. But COVID, too, has to stabilize first to really have a larger comment on that. And you will also appreciate that if you take out this INR 500 crores and the money risk which we have an indicative thing is around INR 1,400 crores, we have a provision of INR 1,000 crores. So that idea was to really strengthen the balance sheet and have not made much of provisions so that even when the NPD comes, it does not get on our balance sheet.

Sure. And sir, my last question is on the business front, where we have increased our presence from like 11-odd states to now 15 states and 2 union territories. So you've added like almost 6 new geographies, and obviously, we just put one-on-one brand. So what is your thought process here in the sense that in a COVID year, we've expanded our presence in newer geographies? How are we thinking about it? Like what is your thought process here? And what is the plan here on other newer geographies?

Yes. So distribution, yes, we're evolving as a bank. And so distribution will take its own form in shape in times to come. We have done a little bit of expansion in quarter 3, quarter 4 because of things were actually looking not much normal. So -- and I don't think that COVID, too, will have a really long-term tenure. I can't comment it, but that's my personal thought process. So beyond that, again, we will see our distribution plan, and we really want to expand as and when required and if and when things become normal.

So the next question is from the line of Bharat Shah from ASK Investment Managers Limited.

Yes. Sanjay, I think you are on a speaker phone, so your voice is not coming very clearly. So I'd love it if...

Give me 2 minutes. I'll join from the other call. Just give me 1 minute. We are in 2 separate rooms. Give me 1 second. Am I live?

This is better.

Am I audible now?

Yes, this is better. So my first question again on the [ debt liquidity ] [indiscernible].

Bharat, you are now not audible.

Mr. Bharat we are not able to hear you?

Is my voice clear now?

Sir, you're sounding very soft.

Is the voice clear now?

Better?

Yes. Yes.

I was saying in the first 3 quarters, our provision coverage has been about 2/3. In this quarter, it has come down to roughly half. Now for these nonbanking finance companies that their executives say they feel positive [indiscernible] so that there is lot of clarity that what is a low credit cost reflected and what is likely to be there, assuming the judgment is made prior. Banks still have more of a revolving kind of provisions. So we have to rely on actual assessment and judgment of the bank concerned. So do you think and this increase in the June period, but provision coverage coming down to half rather than normal 2/3? Do you feel confident that this coverage is adequate? And as it stands today, you have no reason to believe that there are any additional cost on the asset book than what is -- what you provided till now?

Bharat, good question. So you will appreciate that this is one of the most unprecedented time. We, as executive only has to get and build your experience around creating any kind of provisions. So historically, if you really see that 1/3 kind of money can be lost in the NPL number, and we have done close to 50%. And in that 50%, you will also appreciate that the 90 days is only 90 days and above is only INR 1,000 crores. So for me, actually, if I do my own calculation on the balance sheet side, then we believe that we are actually covering around 80% to 90%. And as I already commented, that my average ticket on a 90 days book is around INR 2 lakhs, which is secured either by the vehicle or by real estate. So I think it's a temporary phenomenon where we have slippages but with that time, it will come back. Now the COVID 2 has just come [ topside ]. And honestly, April has not been that bad in terms of collection efficiency. It has gone [ 5% ] or may be 7%, today is a closing day, but it is around 5%, 7% dip from the last April. It not last April because last April was not normal one. But a normal April month is at 5% down. So I would believe that as of now, I strongly believe that we are fully covered.

So essentially, you think in [indiscernible] as it tends to do, with you will survive this, who [indiscernible] recognize…

Mr. Shah we are not able to hear you clearly.

My apologies. Is the voice clear now?

Yes. Much better, thank you.

As it stands today, do you have every reason to believe that what we have recognized and what we have provided is adequate? And from various things, it is unlikely that there is a rude shock on that number?

Yes. Yes.

My second question, Sanjay, is on OpEx. While you have been very clear from the beginning that of our business lines, growth investments into building the business and technology will continue and therefore, expenses would be at a little elevated level for a while before the operating leverage kicks in. So I suppose the higher cost in the fourth quarter that we are seeing on a related basis is merely extension of that, and there is nothing unusual assessing that?

So Bharat, that's true. We need to keep on investing in our franchise, and technology remain our key focus area. And technology does not come easy and it's an expensive medium in the initial years. You need to invest on people, the people, the tech and everything, right? So [ this journey ] the bank would continue to invest. And I strongly believe for next 10 years, if AU has to become one of the most prominent bank in this country, then our digital journey and tech led whole initiative has to be top-notch. So we are really committed at that side. So tech expenses are there. We have launched credit card, we have launched video banking. So that little bit of cost has come from those initiatives also. But one of the items which was ESOP, which has been debited last quarter is also one of the reasons where we had a little bit of elevated costs. Other than that, everything has been very normal one.

Last thing on the ESOP cost, I saw INR 59 crores [ debted ] in this quarter. I just wanted a factual detail what is the total ESOP cost charge in fiscal '20 and total is of ESOP cost charge in fiscal '21 in entirety?

Bharat, can we give this off-line? Because it will be required for details. I will ask my CFO to be in touch with you, and then they will provide you.

The next question is from the line of Renish Bhuva from ICICI Securities.

Congratulations a great set of numbers in this really difficult time. So sir, just a couple of question. One is on, again, on this 90, less than 90 days DPD pool. So just trying to understand here why you had recognition, as in the slides, we are mentioning that the pool is sort of not in pain as we stand today, I mean, in terms of the March numbers, almost 7% of the book is current and almost 80% of the book is paying. So what is the rationale behind the accelerating in the recognition in Q4 rather than waiting for these loan accounts to recover?

No, no. So by virtue of Superior Court orders, we were not supposed to add any account as NPA till 23rd March. So December, when we announced our results, it was a 90 DPD as of 31 December, which we got classified as gross pro forma NPLs. So that we got reduced by March. But because 23rd March when the Supreme Court took to tag NPA as per the regulation, we need to target from 1st September. So full NPA tagging came in the last week of March. That is why we recognized all those NPLs. Many of the accounts, which were not actually a 90-plus, but they've tagged as NPL because once that -- once it passes 90 days, has to be tagged as NPLs.

Got it. So you're saying maybe after September, they could have paid something and then would have fallen to NPL. Again, they might have started seeing in March, earlier NPL has to be recognized?

Yes, yes.

Secondly, on the uptake cost side for FY '20, we have utilized Aavas gain on building the buffer. And now we are carrying around [ INR 1 billion ] of provision offer to take care of any adverse impact of the second wave. But I mean, based on the current status of our book, I mean, do you feel this [ INR 1 billion ] would be enough to sort of take care of any adverse impact? Or you feel, as and when we go ahead, we'll assess the impact and maybe we take a call in Q1 to build further [ book amount ]?

So yes. So what happened, if you really pace and you see us for the last full 1 year, we actually have made our balance sheet more stronger. Our net worth has gone up by 43% in spite of INR 750 crore kind of provision in last year itself. So -- and we really want to really concentrate more on strengthening our balance sheet. And who can actually predict how COVID 2 would be? So in the precautions, we have built a small contingency provision. So that in case in the future, we want to build more and more, it should help us. So it's a start point to a create buffer. And as and when things evolve, we will create more buffers. But we have that margin because that is around 14.5% to 15%. So we have enough yield available us to cover this kind of risk. So -- and we have actually grown our balance sheet strong and stronger in last 1 year.

Got it. Just last question from my side, and is more on the competitive side and market share gain side. So also we have seen a pretty sharp disbursement growth in second half. And we have seen, sort of hearing most of the our peer side, I mean the like NBFCs, on the Vehicle Finance segment that are still struggling with either lower collection or maybe they are still cautious in growing balance sheet. So what is the scenario? I mean the sharp disbursement is reflection of our sheer capability to gain market share at such accelerated pace? And we are ready to sort of expand the balance sheet even in FY '22, assuming the second wave going to stay for, let's say, for next couple of months? Or we will sort of pause and then…

So that's the way AU operates, honestly, because our wheel and SBL and housing franchise is very old, very seasoned. They know how to operate in this difficult period. And last year, they demonstrated that in spite of quarter, 1 quarter 2 so bad, quarter 3, quarter 4, we came back so strongly. So that's the whole distribution and the franchise, which we want to operate. And hopefully, I would say, so difficult to comment for this year. So I would only state that have -- we should have renewed patience around how COVID 2 actually evolves and how the normalcy comes. And then we will take the appropriate actions.

Any comment on the market share gain? I mean...

So we are too small. Honestly, we are too small to talk about market share and all those things. Our wheel book is around close to INR 2 billion. Our [ SBL ] book is close to around INR 2 billion. Our housing book is close to INR 2,000 crores. So it's a long way to go. So I think I can only assure my shareholders on this call that your bank is very good in shape. It is very good in terms of positioning themselves. We are evolving as a very stronger franchise. Team has shown their commitment and character. And I believe, in this time, these team goals themselves and the whole negativity is not there, actually. So again, when the good times will come, we'll be there.

I think that reflects in our best-in-class ROE, ROA for the full year.

Yes.

The next question is from the line of Amit Nanavati from Nomura.

Yes. I just wanted to check basically, we've done pretty well in the last 2 quarters in terms of disbursement, pushing the pedal really hard once we saw the growth opportunity. But if you look at last 2 quarters disbursement, that's basically now 1/3 of our AUM, which is basically a relatively much lower vintage book. And if you look at even the COVID environment, last 1 year disbursement is half of our AUMs. I just wanted to see if you can provide any qualitative comments on the behavior of that book versus the more -- relatively more vintage book? That's point one. And secondly, does that kind of change your growth trajectory to some extent where you want to see how the book pans out before you kind of continue to accelerate on the growth front? Yes, that's it from my side.

Amit. So good question. I would say because once we started disbursement back in quarter 3 and quarter 4, so there was a stringent credit policy were applied. And we were also taking a lot of caution around our underwriting. Customer was also very caution around taking him as in -- taking a loan also. So I would say it was more an informed call. So -- and we -- it was not good times, right? So there's an old saying that bad books are created in the good times. But I would say, that it's not at that good time when we created the book. So I strongly believe that, that book should have better outcome in times to come. And once things become normal because if vaccination drive becomes very effective, a lot of medication comes and become a lot more effective. I think normalcy will be there. And then we, again, we'll take the call how we want to underwrite and how we want to book -- really want to build book. So as of now, I'm not worried about that the book which we wrote last year can be an issue around us.

Yes. So the reason, I'm asking this is basically with the whole wave 2 hitting, one comes to the realization that probably there is a good chance that COVID will stay for a longer time, we'll have a probably a shorter wave 3, the intensity will keep on decreasing or the impact will keep on decreasing. But at least you will have a more frequent patchy disruptions ahead as well, right? So to that extent, does the growth strategy take the back seat for now or no?

Yes. So we are not thinking about growth strategy, honestly, because what we've done in quarter 3 and quarter 4 was because how the market behaved. So again, the call will be very on the very informed basis, how the market is shaping, how and why customers really looking for the credits. So that call will shape as we will approach that period. Otherwise, I would say [Audio Gap] If you really see that quarter 3 -- quarter 1 have been underwriting, people were more prepared because this time, people are more prepared for COVID. Last year when we had a lockdown, we never had a -- we were not having any provision around it, right? So the way the whole book performed, you will appreciate that at 80% book is current. And so 80% book is current in March is a very high point for us. So I would believe that once normalcy will come in, so people will, again, able to sustain and we'll start meeting thus.

Understood. Lastly, the taxi aggregate's segment and linked segment, which got impacted in wave 1. Is it largely sitting now in NPAs? Or there is something which is sitting in 60 to 90 DPD as well?

So taxi segment has impacted more. So that's why their NPS will be more. But specific data, we can share with you offline.

Next question that is from the line of Nidhesh Jain from Investec.

So again, on asset quality, I believe overall performance is good. But sir, your commentary at the end of Q3 results, where we said that there will not be a requirement of incremental provisions. We have already reached peak of NPA. You also highlighted that the overall challenging pool is around INR 1,500 crores. So Q-on-Q, we have not seen any improvement in underlying asset quality. Despite Q4 being a very, very strong quarter from a economic standpoint. And probably, in these numbers, we have not seen any impact of second save as of now. So what is the reason for this outcome on the asset quality cycle?

No, I think I explained very detailed in last 4, 5 questions. So again, I repeat that if you really see our asset quality, you can't see only 1 bucket. You need to see the whole 5 bucket right from current, which is 80%, which is as good as last February, March. Then if you see my 1 EMI bucket or which is, again, around 9%. So I believe if these numbers are there, we should strongly believe that customers are generally hand some back. And that was our overall commentary. And if you see the collection efficiency, which has actually remained around north of 100% for whole quarter. So that was also very good. And of course, the whole 90 DPD, which generally at this segment, as an NBFC hold, NBFC always tracked 90 DPD has actually got reduced. And for somehow Supreme Court order which came in last week of March, we actually really missed that, honestly. So that has made us that around [ INR 400 crore ] tag on that particular quarter, right, particular week. So I don't think that because of that 1 action, we can believe that the collection efficiency or the book has not shaped up well. So in my opinion, I'm very happy the way our markets are, the way the [ ease ] are, and the way we have operated in the ground, it's a fantastic outcome.

And secondly, can you comment on the credit card product that we are going to launch next -- this financial year? How that will have an impact on our [indiscernible]? What sort of product investments you are ready to make, investments? Because I think in the initial few years, it could be a drag on P&L and probably after couple of years, it may start to contribute to bottom line? So if you can just comment.

It's on a project basis. As of now, is on project stage. We would love to comment more on this in our next call.

The next question is from the line of Hiral Desai from Anived Portfolio Managers Pvt. Ltd.

Sanjay, 1 more question on asset quality. We've obviously have done it enough, but the way you've spoken last time on the distressed segment, which was school, taxi, bus, apparel retailer. So just wanted to understand if all of that is now within the stress pool of either the GNP or the restructured book?

So I would say we should not color every customer with the sector approach because even a taxi owner who is more stable, who has no [ breach ] of contract, is paying us, and maybe some customer is over-leveraged or has some issues, is not paying us. So I don't want to color that every retailer or every taxi owner has become bad. The structure the debt maybe a little bit more, right? And that now has to be under 4%. Correct? So. I would appreciate that if my shareholders understand this the kind of yield we deal in, the kind of market we deal in. If you compare that number with any of our peers, you will find AU numbers far, far better than that.

And the other thing is, given that this pandemic has been sort of like once in a century, what are the changes that we've made to the underwriting internally? And we are sort of going back to what Amit asked, given that there is a lot of uncertainty around the disbursement growth has been fairly strong in H2. So what are the changes that you've made to the underwriting to remain confident that we don't have any asset quality accidents in next 18 to 24 months?

So I would say that no, actually, to very honest with you all you people, that I got more strength at the kind of [ lending ] we are doing from years actually past the [ sense ] of this pandemic. If you really see why 90-plus is 2.7% on an average yield of 14.5%. With the security of wheel or real estate, what should I expect more, to be very honest? So we are not in macro finance. We are not in gold finance. We are actually in an asset, which actually brings business for the customer side. So I think not too much of changes we have done in our underwriting. Rather, I have those are teams that what we have done over the year, you actually revalidate your approach around it. So -- and customer has also become very cautious, to be very honest, that nobody wants to borrow money just to default it. And we actually don't give them personal loan. We give them a hard-core security backed loan. So I'm very -- honestly, I'm very happy. Let the things again, settle down maybe a quarter-to-quarter. But your bank is on very strong footing in terms of underwriting, in terms of selection, in terms of engagement with the customers, right. That is more important for me.

And then the other is the geographic mix that you share of the AUM, if I look at that, the growth in Gujarat has been much slower versus rest of the other markets. It's not a very large bucket size. So I think about INR 3,500-odd crores. So any specific reason why Gujarat growth has been a bit slower?

Gujarat is tough market, not much awareness around customers, around the whole delivery from the financiers, lenders. It's too competitive market. We also don't want to focus much there. We are an old franchise. So we are -- we ourselves have taken caution approach around Gujarat market.

But this is not related to any sort of accidents in terms of asset quality or anything of that sort?

No, no.

And the last question that I have is a lot of these e-commerce offers that you've run through FY '21. Can you share the kind of money that you spent in terms of the cash back on offers?

So we'll share you offline.

Lastly, Sanjay, if you can just give me the cost of savings account for the year?

Okay, it's sub 6. Cost of savings account, Rishi? Rishi, are you there?

5.7% is the average cost of the savings account book.

So the next question is from the line of Manish Shukla from Citigroup.

A couple of clarification. If you go to slide 26, you have given the DPD classification for the ONAN pool. That matched with the DPD that we have on slide 25, right? I mean, like-for-like, as of March 21?

So what's the question, Manish. Sorry, can you repeat it?

Slide 25 gives the DPD for the entire book. And slide 26 is the DPD for the ONAN pool. I'm assuming that the DPD of slide 26 is a subset of the DPD of slide 25?

Correct. Correct.

The other question is that if I understand you right, it is because of the Supreme Court verdict, that the addition of INR 440 odd crores have been tagged as NPA. But yet you have chosen to provide as much as [ 43% ] on that book, which is in line with your historical SGD. And I'm assuming that this was not part of your stress test consideration as of December. So just trying to understand the provision policy on this INR 440 crores additional which have come through in the March quarter?

Yes. So we have done a little bit of acceleration provision on this book. But on lesser than 90 DPD is generally remain in the as per [ gauge ] of policy 1. So nothing specific, but you have to classify which book, what you have done. But overall, the approach was to remain in a safer zone.

And is it fair to say that this additional INR 440 odd crore, which has been tracked and then less than 90 DPD, most of what would have been there as of December, as in, mean, how much of it would have been current approximately?

So, we have given you the ONAN pool classification, where we say that 13% is current, 9% is 130 DPD.

That as of March 31, I'm assuming -- I'm asking for the full year number as of 30th December?

We'll give you separately. The amount was very less, INR 100 crores.

The next question is from the line of Abhijeet Sakhare from Kotak Securities.

First question was some color on April performance in terms of what share of our deals and SBL customers are able to operate during some form of lockdowns and any level of -- any color on level of collections that we've achieved?

So I already commented that business volume has gone down. Our branch footfall has also gone down. Team's spirit is also very low because the sudden surge, everybody was caught unaware. I would say collection efficiency is also down by 5% in comparison to normal April month, difficult to comment as of now because -- specifically because today is the last day, but my worry would be how we actually shape up in the month of May or June, I can't comment because this surge has been in the last 2 weeks only.

And sir, secondly, the initial commentary around some caution for the future outlook. Is the caution more on the growth side? Or are you also sort of cautious on how the asset quality outcomes could behave in the next few quarters?

The caution is overall, honestly, because this is very unprecedented, right? COVID 1 actually was more around lockdown because of anxiety around lockdown, but now this is anxiety around health. So we need to really understand that how the whole situation will evolve. So caution is generally right. And actually, to be very honest, I commented this in the month of March itself that we really had to be lot, much of caution in the next 4 quarters. So we'll continue to keep eye on this whole development and take the necessary actions.

And sir, a data question is what share of our customers would be holding 2 or more products from AU?

So in terms of overlapping around asset is very low, very low. Actually, 10% customers will be overlapping around in assets because we don't fund 2 loans to 1 customer. And in terms of deposit versus asset customer it's around 20%.

So sir, that comment on extra NPL because of some customers having an NPA and 1 of the other products. Is that for the other products or like across the banking system or…

So I'm not able to understand your question.

Sir, on that side, with that pie chart, is that we think of 13% is solid? What kind of NPS is for other customers?

Current means, he might one account which is 90-plus.

With AU?

Yes, with AU, with AU.

The next question is from the line of Pranav Gupta from Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance.

Just a clarification, I'm sorry to pull on this asset quality part again. So I wanted to understand that this 13% of this 1.5% pool is current, right? So effectively, even if they have been tagged as NPA because of the indication of the Supreme Court order, had they been current -- shouldn't they have been updated into the same quarter immediately? Am I understanding this correct or am I missing something?

So we'll answer you offline here because I have answered a lot many questions around asset quality. So if you don't mind, we can connect this separately and answer this one.

Sure, no problem. The second question is on the cost side. So despite the pandemic has been part of entire year. Just wanted to understand, you've added employees quite aggressively throughout the year, whether this is more on the collection side because of the additional efforts required or whether it is more on the growth side, you can explain some of that?

Yes. So it's overall. It's an overall building of the franchise. So like I said, we started credit card, video banking, QR codes. So team joined there also. We built a little bit more strength to our collection team, overall home loan team. So that's the investment we have done in the last 2 quarters. So that's the whole data.

Okay. And just one last question from my end. So you mentioned that cost outside the [ deposits ] is about the same. And we've seen a few other SSDs as well as sort of offer higher SA rates and even higher TD rates to garner deposits. But I understand that given the size and given your deal, it makes complete sense to acquire deposits at that this cost. But just wanted to understand, have we considered cutting deposit rates at all given the surplus liquidity which is there in the system? Or has that not been a consideration set at all for us?

So Rishi, can you answer this?

Rishi here. See our peak deposit rates over the last 12 months on the TDs, that retail TD came from 7.77% to 6.5%. And the structure of our savings rate also actually allows that while we offer a peak rate of 7%, the overall blended cost of our SA book is 5.7%. So we have been very conscious about the rate at which we are raising our deposits. And the other very important thing, which we have done over the last 12 months is actually, we reduced our dependence on bulk deposits and granularized and retailized our deposit base. That I think, along with the growth in the SA book, are the more important movements which have happened in the book, and the focus will remain in further granularizing the deposits over the next couple of years.

The next question is from the line of Rahul Maheshwary from AMBIT Asset Management. Mr. Maheshwary we are not able to hear you clearly.

Can you hear me now?

Slightly better.

Sir, just 2 questions, not on asset quality. But on current, can you say what kind of rejection rate is going on according to you. Looking at what you [ do in the current jam ]? And currently, how tightened you have done in your freight lending or disbursement section? And second thing on -- looking at the current stance on the finished year book to which you told that eventually it will become on a normalized way. But any estimate will -- how the PCR would be moving on looking at the current situation, whether you want to be more conservative or you would go according how the things are moving on the ground on the operational efficiency side?

Yes, sorry, and I'm not able to hear you very clearly. But I believe I have answered all these questions in my previous discussion. But to be again repetitive on that side, I really want to say again that we will take the caution and conservative approach to strengthen our balance sheet. So -- and that stance will continue for this year also till we see that things normalize. So -- and for the rest of your question, I believe my team can take off-line and explain you.

Sir, but currently, what is the rejection rate in terms of the files which has come in? And what it was in January? Can you just some color on that?

So rejection means logging into credit, right?

Yes.

Yes. Yes. So that got -- so logging to credit, the reduction ratio actually gone up by 10%. So we were rejecting a 10% more than the normal time.

And do you -- and looking at in April month as the end year coming, do you expect it will further inch up?

Difficult to comment as of now because suddenly slowdown has been there. So we will -- we are watching the situation, and we'll see how we'll operate in this scenario.

We'll be taking the last question starts from the line of [ Jeff Loy from Bona Vista Management ]. There seems to be no response from the line of [ Mr. Jeff Loy ], and that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aseem Pant for his closing comments.

Thanks, Yvonne. I just want to add one clarification to a question that was earlier asked on the 13% current DPD in the ONAN Pool, just to be clear, and we mentioned it in the slide as well on slide 26, this is despite fact that ONAN despite being current, mainly because it is linked to a loan, which is in the 10 to 90 DPD bucket and not 900 plus. And we've mentioned that in the slide as well. And with this, we'll close the call. On behalf of AU Bank, I would like to thank you all, once again for joining us, and we hope that you remain safe and well. Please reach out of with the Investor Relations team, should you have any further questions or clarifications. Thank you.

Thank you so much.