BRAC Bank PLC. ($BRACBANK)

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to BRAC Bank Plc's Earnings Disclosure for the full year 2025. In the first quarter -- thank you for joining us today through our live webcast and digital platforms. It's my pleasure to share with you the performance of BRAC Bank Group during what has been significant for our institutions. Our results reflect the strength of our diversified business model, the trust of our customers and the commitment of our colleagues Ecogenation. Before inviting our business leaders to pesos, their respective segment updates, I would like to provide some perspective on the macropinvironment and how it has saved our performance. Can you go to the economics Yes. one's economic outlook has improved gradually over the past year. Several key indicators such as that economy is moving towards greater stability. The current account has returned to surplus supported by resilient export group and continued strength in evidence in funds. At the same time, imports remained relatively subdued and emit modern private secure demand -- as a result, GDP growth for financial year 2025 was approximately 4%. Looking ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic. Inflation is to 8.7% as of March 26, and we expect further moderation over the coming quarters. Should inflation continue to decline moderately. -- conditions may become more supportive, which will help stimulate investment and credit demand. In the synergy of GDP growth would improve to the 5.1% to 5.5% range in financial 2026. While metro comic conditions remain important, our primary focus continues to be on serving our customers effectively and executing our strategy in the discipline. Again this sector, I'm pleased to report that all of our major business segments delivered strong and balanced performance. To begin with, I would like to invite our AMD and Head of SE Banking, Syed Abdul Momen, to present the performance of our framing businesses. Thomas, over to you.

Thank you Tareq Bhai. Good evening, everyone. I'm pleased to share the performance of SME Banking, which continues to be the key growth engine of BRAC Bank and remains firmly aligned with our purpose of empowering entrepreneurs across Bangladesh. So I'll first give you the highlights of 2025 full year, and then I will move to the Q1 2026. Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment in 2025, SME Banking delivered another year of strong and balanced growth. Our SME portfolio grew by 14% year-on-year nearing about BDT 35,000 crore book size, while deposits recorded an impressive 33% growth, which is around BDT 1,900 crore book deposit size of SME. More importantly, our customer base expanded by 24%, reaching to over 820,000 entrepreneurs nationwide. Trade business also performed strongly with volume increased by 18% to USD 223 million, reflecting continued business activity among SME clients. Asset quality remained resilient. NPL increased only marginally to 2.13% demonstrating a strength of our overall underwriting standard and portfolio management practices, despite economic pressures. The key drivers behind the performance were our continued investments in digital transformation, product innovation and customer acquisitions. The rollout of the electronic loan processing system, eLab, has significantly enhanced our loan processing efficiency, while solutions such as Bizpay, new segment products like Tikanaffordable housing, Torones financing and bank assurance helped us to deepen our relationship with our customers and diversify our revenue streams. Now I'll move on to our performance of Q1. We operated a business in a business environment marked by slower economic activity and subdued market demand. Against this backdrop, our performance remains stable and encouraging. Deposits continued to grow strongly, increased by 26% year-on-year and 12% year-to-date, reaching to BDT 19,548 crore deposit book. This reflects also, again, a strong customer confidence and our increasing focus on a sustainable SME funding base. The portfolio stood at INR 33,910 crores, which is the asset portfolio, which is up 10% year-on-year. While we experienced some seasonal moderation compared to year-end levels. We remain confident to regain the momentum during the coming quarters. Most encouragingly, asset quality continued to improve in PLD decline to 1.86%. Par also improved significantly. -- indicators demonstrate the resilience of our portfolio and the effectiveness of our risk management framework. Although the cost of deposit increased in high interest rate environment, asset yields improved even faster, helping us maintain a healthy margin and support the profitability. Trade volumes were lower compared to last year, mainly due to slower import export activities and global supply chain challenges. We consider this a temporary slowdown and have already initiated targeted actions to restore momentum. Looking ahead, as we move through 2026, our priorities remain clear: profitable growth, stronger deposits, superior customer experience, continued digitalization and disciplined risk management. We will continue investing in technology, expanding fee-based income streams and strengthening our position in Bangladesh as a leading SME bank. Most importantly, we remain committed to the vision of BRAC Bank, which was founded, supporting the growth of small and medium businesses and enabling enterprises to contribute to country's overall economic development. Thank you very much. Over to you Tareq Bhai.

Thanks to our on the chip. SME Banking remains at the heart of Bradman's identity and purpose. During financial 2025, the segment delivered 14% growth in the loan portfolio. and 33% growth in deposits. These results demonstrate the enduring strength of our SME franchises and the deep relationship that they have built over 25 years of our journey in Bangladesh. Now let me invite our Head of Wholesale Banking, Shaheen Iqbal to share the highlights of our porpoisiative banking business.

Thank you, Tareq bhai. Good evening, everyone. Wholesale Banking delivered a standout year in 2025. Assets grew by 16%, deposit grew by 20%. Our farm crossed 50,000 core mark first time in 2025. NPL improved by 134 basis points. We are now at 2.17% NPL level, which has significantly improved from previous year. This is a major quality improvement delivered by recovery and derisking of our portfolios. Trade volume starts by 30%, and we crossed BDT 7 billion, indicating Break Bank's strong presence in corporate trade finance business. Revenues grew by 36%, and we crossed 2 billion mark last year, highlighting the bank's strong presence in the Revitas market enhanced as the fourth largest [indiscernible] on our bank in 2025. OB balance sheet grew by 43% and placing ourselves as #1 bank in terms of 1 portfolio. achieves through industry-leading client acquisition strategy, structured finance solutions, landmark deals expanded footprint in public sector, growing digital convenience and transaction banking offerings for our clients. So overall, 2025 was a very successful year for us. In 2026, we maintained the portfolio. In first quarter 2026, our strategic focus remained on transaction banking and trade solutions and overall improvement in CASA mix. We cautiously maintained loan growth under the prevailing macroeconomic scenario. You know that macro channels remains a major concern for the industry. We maintain that position and maintain the quality as well. In last month, we crossed for the first time $1 billion trading a month, so to become the largest trade bank in the industry, we are well positioned for a stronger quarters ahead with our core strength in digital solutions and innovative product offerings to our clients. So we hope to see 2026, again, a very good year for wholesale bank. Thank you again, and back to Tareq bhai.

Thank you, Shaheen. Despite of microglia challenges, our wholesale banking business continued to perform strongly. Trade business volume grew by around 30%, surpassing use $7 billion mark, while our offshore banking unit expanded by 53%. These achievements reflect the confidence of our corporate and into trends placing the man and our ability to provide solutions are to the evolving needs. Now let me introduce our Head of Retail Banking, Mr. Mahiul. Mahiul, what do you.

Yes. Thank you. Good evening. In Retail Banking, we delivered another year of sustained growth across both deposits and lending during full year 2025. Let me walk you through the highlights aligned with our key drivers. Our deposits grew strongly by 34% year-on-year, crossing it INR 42,000 crores. Our premium banking segment achieved INR 15,000 crores milestone and our Tara women banking portfolio reached nearly INR 13,000 crores, both reflecting

Mahiul, we can't hear you. Can you hear us?

Yes.

We have lost for a while. So can you begin it again?

Okay. Good evening. In Retail Banking, we delivered another year of sustained growth across both deposits and lending in full year 2025. Let me walk you through the highlights aligned with our key drivers. Our deposits grow strongly by 34% year-on-year possibility is BDT 42,000 crores. Our premium banking segment achieved BDT 15,000 crore milestone and our Tara women banking portfolio reached BDT 13,000 crores both reflecting the depth and diversity of our customer relationships. On the asset side, we grew by 29% year-on-year to BDT 12,500 crores, driven by lending across selected customer segments aligned with our risk appetite with strong focus on employee banking. We remain as the largest consumer finance portfolio in banking industry. Now about our customer base, it reached 1.45 million, and we accelerated on our digital acquisition by opening more than 200,000 new accounts and disbursed 30,000-plus loans through our digital platform. Our mobile lab, Asta processed annual transaction volume of BD 2.37 trillion, growing by an impressive 77% year-on-year. On portfolio quality, we remain focused on collection discipline, keeping our NPL below 3%. Now if we move on to our quarter 12026 updates, where we continued to deliver strong all-in on growth as well. Our deposit portfolio continued to be its momentum, growing by 33% year-on-year to reach BDT 46,000 crores quarter mix stands at 33%, and our cost of deposits improved to 6.43% which is an encouraging early sign linked to our CASA growth strategy. On asset side, we also have the growth story continued by 25% year-on-year growth to INR 12,700 crores, and our asset yield improved significantly by 130 basis point year-on-year, reflecting the quality and pricing discipline of our lending growth. On portfolio quality, our NPL stands at 2.92% par IP has a 2.92%, par at 4.71%. And while it has moved up slightly, we are closely monitoring and focus on collection efforts. In our cards business, we are seeing a very healthy direction. Our credit card stands at -- portfolio stands at ease BDT 1,600 crore plus, up by 14% year-on-year with card spends growing 17% year-on-year to BDT 1,400 crores. Debit card also grew strongly by 29% year-on-year to BDT 894 crores, reflecting customer engagement with our digital payment ecosystem. Overall, Q1 has been a solid start to the year, and we are well positioned to sustain this momentum through the rest of this year. That's all from my side. Thank you.

Thank you, Mahiul. Although it was a bit challenged by the technical difficulties. Retail Banking email is 1 of our fastest-growing business. We see a lot of opportunities here where most of the areas are actually still unband underserved. -- particularly in demos area, it crossed around B46,000duce, representing 33% year-on-year growth, with annual transaction volume to stained by 77%. These results underscore the success of our digital investments and our continued focus on delivering a seamless customer experience. So to discuss how our physical and digital channels work together to support our customers, I would like to invite our Head of Distribution, to Mr. Sheikh Asfaque. Ashfaque, over to you.

Thank you, Tanika. Good evening, everyone. It is my pleasure to present the key highlights of the branch distribution network performance of FY 2025 and Q1 2026. Throughout the period, our focus remained on driving sustainable growth through relationship banking, service excellence, diesel adoption and strong compliance governance. Starting with FY 2025, the distribution network delivered strong momentum across all major business pillars. We achieved a record deposit growth of around BDT 17,000 crores reflecting 25% year-on-year growth, while maintaining a balanced CASA to TD mix of 3169 in the marginal portfolio. On the asset side, disbursement reached BDT 2,700 crores, registering an impressive 87% growth over last year. At the same time, trade cut issuance crossed 16,000 cars reflecting 45% year-on-year growth. Beyond business growth, we also strengthened our distribution footprint by opening 5 new branches and 4 subbranches alongside repositioning 2 locations to improve customer accessibility and service efficiency. During the year, the network delivered more than 14 million services while continuously accelerating reserve adoption to enhance operational efficiency and customer convenience. Importantly, while driving strong business performance, we maintained robust governance and compliance standards reflected through satisfactory BFI audit performance, along with strong ICC and AML ratings. Second slide, please. Moving to Q1 2026. We continued the growth trajectory with deposit net growth of BDT 84,000 crores while improving CASA mix to 52% Consequently, the cost of deposit reduced to 6.6%, improving by 21 basis points during the quarter. On the service front, the network delivered around 3.4 million services during the quarter, handling nearly 59,000 customer footprints per day. Additionally, we onboarded around 67,000 new relationships through our continued focus on diesel onboarding and quality customer acquisition. -- as we move forward through 2026, our priorities remain clear: accelerating service migration to alternate channels, strengthening relationship-based banking and ensuring sustainable customer-focused growth with strong governance. The momentum from Q1 gives us confidence for the remainder of the year. That's all from me, Tareq bhai.

Thank you, everyone. Our distribution network continues to evolve to meet changing customer preferences. In quarter 1, 2026, alone that it work generated about BDT 4,120 crores in net deposit growth, while maintaining a strong CASA ratio of 52%. That was vulnerable. This reflects the efficiency and effectiveness of our omnichannel strategy. Now we need to report sustainable growth request strong risk governance and responsible banking practices. I'm pleased to invite our MD and Chief risk officer, Mr. Amir Rieger. Over to you, Jai.

Thank you, Tareq bhai. Good evening, everyone. So I will talk about the period the year 2025 and the Q1 side by side. So we present our stressed portfolio trend for the last 5 years, which includes the NPL, the reissuing and the restructuring laws. As you can see, in 2025, our NPL was 2.27%, and our entire rescheduling portfolio was 0.68%. So in total, the stressed portfolio was 2.5%. That's below 3. In Q1, it increased 13 bps from the previous period, but still the NPL issue is around 2.2%. So this is about our stressed portfolio. On the right side, you will see the NPL coverage. We continue to hold percentage in build coverage ratio for the year 2025. In Q1, it dipped to 125, but still strategically, that's the position we are holding. Our cost of credit in the year, 25 was 91 bps -- and in Q1 of 2026, it was 93 bps. On the bottom side, you will see that our net NPA ratio is basically negative 0.68% because we are holding more provisions than our NPL amounts and for that matter, it is negative. The NPL slippage ratio for 2025 only 0.03%. And for that matter, you can see how low the NPL is if compared with the previous year. The economic cost of risk ratio this year was 89 bps. Basically, this is the write-off ratio for the year divided by the entire portfolio. So this is what we call economic cost of risks. That was 89 bps in 235. And you can see this is similar to the cost of credit ratio of 91 bps of 2025. So both are similar numbers. So this is all about sales portfolio and coverage and great cost. Since we have been growing 22% on CEG basis in our loans grow for the last 5 years. We think that it would be wise to present the vintage ratio for the last 8 years. What sense we were growing fast. So let me give you 1 example is that in 2022, we disbursed around INR 1,617 crores take credit, of which at present, we have NPL amount of only INR 294 crores, so which is only 0.72%. Similarly in 2023, we have disbursed around BDT 52,000 crores. and of which, at present, we have BDT 428 crores of NPL, which is 83 bps. So you can see the trend of the last 5, 6 years is below 1. So that demonstrates that our -- despite we grew fast but our underwriting standards was -- I mean, it was a stable underwriting process that we followed. Our underwriting is now heavily dependent on and improving on the tech-led models. For example, we have been working very strongly on the scorecards around 27% of our small business portfolio is run through the application scorecard and around 85% of the personal portfolio is processed applying score cards. And we are now, from this quarter, moving to the risk-based pricing based on those scorecards. 36% our parcel loans are digitally processed. It's completely STP. Last year, we did a foundational job thing is that we need our cybersecurity maturity assessment by a global firm, a U.K.-based firm, who has analyzed our cybersecurity and rated us accordingly. They have identified 10 areas to work on, which we will follow to improve our score. Last year, we also completed our -- all the IFRS 9 models, the PD LGD and EAD motors across all business segments and all the motors were developed in-house. So those were the highlights on the credit risk. Now let me talk about the ESG and System Finance. As you can see on the left side, around 14% of our portfolio is green financing and around we have in the sustainable finance portfolio, I mean, against the total portfolio. And for that matter, we have been receiving is regarded one of the top sustainable banks in Bangladesh for the last 5 years by the bangladesh Bank. We have also received high score in Bloomberg ESG score among the listed banks in Bangladesh. Last year, in fact, last 2 years, we have been focusing heavily on our disclosure standards on the ESG domain. We published the sustain report with GHG emission disclosures and that is in accordance with the ISS BGI and Pickup guidelines. We were the first bank in Bangladesh to publish the IFRS S1 and S2 reports in accordance with the ISB guidelines. And last, I would like to emphasize that we were the first bank in Bangladesh to issue social bond in accordance with ECMA principles. And you will be happy to know that, that has been fully subscribed. That's it from me, Taba. Thank you.

Thank you very much. SP1 So our bank-level NPL ratio to 2% reflecting the effectiveness of our prudent underwriting and risk management practices -- on the other side, we also actually launched 1 fast total bond line with quickness standards, reinforcing our government to sustainable finance and inclusive growth. So let me move to financial performance. I will let invite our MD and Chief Financial Officer, Masud Rana, to present our financial proposing Deterding.

Thank you, Tareq. Good evening. I think I'm really pleased to present the strong and improved efficiency and asset quality that we have delivered in full year 2025. So our balance sheet grew about 27% year-on-year and now -- when we ended 2025, we exceeded about BDT 118,000 crores. It means BDT 1.18 trillion size of balance sheet. If you look at our revenue, it has grown by about 31%. And it clearly demonstrates that the rate we are growing our balance sheet, our revenue grows faster. And as a result, that FCI talking about. If we look at our yield on our assets, that has grew by 142 basis points, while cost of deposits grew about 87 basis points. So resultant is that our spread improved by about 54 basis points. I think if we look at our balance sheet, while I have mentioned the overall balance sheet size. Let us look at our loans and advance. It grew about by 17%, while market grew overall about less than 6%. We almost have grown by about 3x than the market. And as you all know, we have a very diversified book, roughly 65% of it is a very cellar for retail and SME and rest is in the wholesale bank. So if we look at our growth over the last year, interestingly, 86% growth came from retail and SME came from the wholesale banking. So if we look at our income statement, our profit and loss, our net interest income, while it has shown a degrowth while it's a prescribed format from our regulator, but if we look at the net interest income, in terms of our earning assets, it has actually grown by 31%. The major portion came from our lending book and the rest came from the investment book, where we have a sizable portfolio of government bond and base. Our -- to deliver this, yes, as we almost disbursed about BDT 70,000 crore loans in the 2025, result and fees and commissions also grew -- as our wholesale had mentioned, we achieved BDT 7.2 billion of trade throughput, which has also helped to grow our fees income. It also includes our remittance foreign exchange income. So net-net, you would see that about 50% growth over there. Overall, our income grew about 24%. In terms of operating expense, it grew by about 25%. I would like to take that space and inform you that we have been continuing and supporting the momentum that we had in the last 2, 3 years, and we would like to continue given the situation of the macro situation. And therefore, in the last 2, 3 years, we are heavily investing on our infrastructure people and also in the technology side. Coming back to the key financial metrics. Given the strong revenue upside, our cost-to-income ratio improved by about 2%. Last year, it was 45%. Our earnings per share also improved by about 185. And NPL, as our [indiscernible] has improved by about 36 basis points. NAV improved significantly -- and our -- most importantly, our capital advocacy improved by about 68 basis points. Thanks to the subordinated capital that we launched middle of the last year, that was fully subscribed about 7 billion BDT. And later in this year, we also launched a social bond, which has also been fully subscribed, so that has also helped to grow our capital position. If we look at I think it continues, and you notice that it has gone actually a bit better than the last year even. Balance sheet grew about 23% year-on-year. while revenue grew about 29%. Again, 6% delta here. Yield improved by year-on-year 58%. But if you noticed from the December, it has improved by about, I think, 31 basis points. While we could manage to hold our cost of fund, particularly cost of deposit because we are heavily relying on last 3 years on the time deposit and since the middle of last year, we have changed our approach. And now across the business, the focus is in to grow the CASA. And we -- as you can see in the first quarter, businesses and our channels has produced a great number in terms of CASA. So if you look at our CASA mix in the first 3 months, our CASA has improved by about 20 basis points. So I think this is historic in a sense, on a solo basis, our bank produced very strong results, profit after tax was BDT 516 million, and return on asset and equity also improved significantly. I think we are in a very good shape. But having said that, overall macro situation, we all know. So whatever we have planned for this year, hopefully, if the macro situation stabilize and improve, we are very confident that we will go beyond our -- whatever we have planned for. I think in terms of consolidated performance with our subsidiaries. Overall, full year, it has produced a very strong number because bKash has been firing in terms of their revenue and also bottom line while other subsidiaries also supported quite well. I would not spend much of a time here just to note the overall group's return on equity and return on assets. Overall, we delivered about BDT 2,251 crores profit after tax for the full year of 2025. Let us look at the Q1, it is about BDT 696 crores overall, representing a 43% year-on-year growth. ROA has improved by 26 basis points. And as a group return on equity improved about 161 basis are. A very strong growth I think you'd really like to show you the contribution made by our subsidiaries. This is a full year step our 2 capital subsidiaries. If we consider year-on-year growth, the performance has grown to be very candid here, we have taken a lot of initiatives to improve that 2 particular capital market subsidiaries, and we are getting the results. SAAJAN has suspended its business and reopened. And I think it's getting the momentum. We see on the first quarter, it is actually improved. And bKash did are really well in 2025. So overall, the strong result was supported by our subsidiaries. So if you look at the -- next Q1, yes. As you can see, the both capital markets subsidiary and also SAAJAN is improving over year-on-year basis. and cash, as I say, they're reported about 40% year-on-year growth. So net-net, I think we are positioned well if everything remains stable and conducive I believe, and I strongly -- I'm quite confident that we'll deliver as the balance sheet and the overall thing promises. Hopefully, we remain focused on our plan -- and if the environment support us, I think we will, in Chile, have a very, very good year ahead. So I think we -- on by the CFO of bKash has also joined Moin do you -- if you can take us through BKash performance.

Right -- thank you. Thank you, Marcia, and good evening years. In line with what Masud bhai just mentioned, Bikash, which had a plastic 2025. quickly touch upon the 6 held parameters. In terms of customer numbers, we finished the year 25 million with 82 million customers, which we acquired about 9.7 million customers just in 2025. averaging to about 27,000 customers a day. Merchants there are 900,000 merchants small, big organized where you can -- where 1 can pay using Bikash and which marginally increased by 1.1%. We are focusing more on quality acquisition rather than just acquisition. In terms of transactions per month, we -- about $1.2 billion tuckers worth of volume every month, which translates to about BDT 38 billion as or BDT 3,800 crores every day. In terms of active customers, we finished December 2025 with 47 million active customers, which is up by 10%. And this also means about 57% of the total registered base is active. 387,000 agents you would find across Bangladesh in almost -- not in all villages this number increased by 40,000 over prior year. Remittance has been a particularly spectra arena where we cashed it well. We doubled our remits volume over 2024. We finished the year with $205 billion worth of revenue. It comprises of nearly 5% of the total revenues of the total inward remittance that comes into Bangladesh. Moving on to the financing. The top line revenue grew by 30%. This has been the ever highest growth in the recent past. -- primarily driver of growth is volumes, which grew by 33% over last year. And to be more more specific, there are 3 areas which led to this volume growth. One was cash out. One was sending money, merchant payments. That was the 3 areas where -- which is the primary drivers of gross revenue. Cost of services in diet economies, we didn't make any changes to the cost of services. Our gross margin remains at around 37%. Operating and adversative expenses this increased by 25%, primarily at the backdrop of salaries and wages, salaries, this was -- we are investing behind people and the increments and a tiny bit of headcount increases. Commercial expenses, although it just shows a 1% increase, but there's an increase or a decrease since our customer acquisition rate has come down. So that's where there's a decrease. However, we did invest a lot of money in promoting products like savings, loans, et cetera. That brings us to operating profit of BDT 707 million, which is -- I'm sorry, INR 707 crores take, which is 107% more than last year. Net finance income increased by 33%. This is effectively our own working capital, and this increase primarily due to -- with the fact that we are making profits, so there's more cash. If I come to profit before tax, bKash clocked at INR 911 crores take, which is 81% increase over prior year. Adjusting for tax, it comes to INR 676 crores at Yes. So that's where I will end. So we almost more than doubled our profit before tax in 2025. If you can move to the next one.

Thank you, Mondor your detailed presentation. So I would like to request you to stay for a while to close this question and answer session. So Bekas delivered another outstanding year with annual profit growing by 14% and maintaining an 81% share for the country's mobile financial services transaction volume. This performance highlights because continued using important contribution to this group. So I would like to hand over to Deb to conduct the question-and-answer session. Deb, over to you.

I talk to moin bhai in it be here. We have prone question for BKash. The question is that -- we have already started micro loans with some of the banks. So how scalable is the digital loan model without increasing the full dining going in.

So yes. So we have -- we are doing the micro credit loan with -- in partnership with 1 single bank so far. It is very scalable, but because this is a completely digital loan. We are moving very cautiously. But however, having then we are very cautiously optimistic about the loans. We -- out of Bikash 83 million customers. Only a small proportion of this -- of the customer base is, right, currently eligible for the loan, but as we are learning from the customer behavior, we will increase it. So it is very, very scalable, but it is -- as I said, we are just moving with a lot of cautious approach.

Thank you, Mandi. That's all for the peakers. So I will come back to the -- any question if I get. So directly, we have received a few other questions related to our banks. So should I start with the question.

Yes, go ahead.

Okay. The first question that we have come through that what is the expected loan growth range for 2026? And what do you think which segment will lead the growth? Okay, I'll take this.

So considering the current macro peric environment, overall loan growth in the banking industry remains relatively subdued. Nevertheless, we are obviously -- and we have seen, obviously, encouraging sense of recovery and remain optimistic about stronger business on teetering months. In line positive outlook. Our business segments have already projected into performance based on their respective pipelines and market opportunities. Accordingly, we expect to achieve an asset growth of around approximately 15% to 17% by the end of this year, if everything goes all right.

In relation to that question, we have please another question. Like in 2025, BrandBank recorded historic high profit, and it is more than BDT 2,200 crores. So what is the next for the backing in 2026? And what do you want to go in terms of profit.

Absolutely. Absolutely, we'll to try to keep the momentum up because our -- fundamentally, if you see our portfolio, it is clearly diversified and most probably the most diversified portion that we have been maintaining proportionately align in SMEs, retail, corporate. And if we can execute our projection on the pipeline that we have, we do not see any problem to achieve further both in this particular sir.

Thank you, Darby. We have a few questions related to our loan quality. So I would ask to Joy bhai for these questions. So Joy bhai do you think there are any only warning signals in your loan portfolio?

Definitely, there are a lending signals. I mean every time you will have this to some extent. But what we see is that what percentage are slipping to the NPLs from the early learning stage. So we monitor accordingly, and there is a strong process on that. Moreover, we have run a detailed risk stress on our entire portfolio. I mean, considering the Middle East world. and all other macroeconomic shocks that will be transmitting. We have considered those and run stress testing on our corporate SCN retail portfolio, which we continue to do so. But according to those specialized stress testing models. We see a delta in a very small amount in our NPL like 15 to 20 bps based on that states SWOT stress test.

The next question is that we know that the Middle East prices is going on. So how will the situation in this -- of this crisis will impact bank in terms of growth and asset quality.

Without knowing that question, I think I have answered it in the previous one. So we have run that SWOT stress test was stressed is. But what we understand is that the world has paused, but how long the Hormuz is going to remain close, that's the cautions. So we see that some developments happening today in Islamabad. So let's see because this is very important that the Hormuz needs to open and then again, we have some new realities that the oil prices will not be going down at 60 or 70 level. The 100 or 110 will be the new normal, which we have to adjust with. So there will be stress in the economy, especially on the fiscal side, but we will adjust accordingly.

Thank you, Joe. Jeff, we have decide question on our social bond part. The question is that -- how will the shareholders benefit from this bond? And how do you think where you will use this fund going forward?

Right. The social bond that we have issued the first of kind in Bangladesh. It was guided by the ECA principle, as I said, but also the fact that Standard and Poor has waited the entire process of this bond. How we will raise this where we are going to invest and how we will report them for the investors. So that has been laid down by the Standard & Poor rated by them and accordingly, BSC has approved it. So in accordance with the Imaprincipal, we will be investing in those areas which are allowable under the Imaprinciple.

Thank you, Jari. So we have a couple of questions related to our financials. So I would request Masuda to answer this question. Masud bhai, You have already mentioned in your presentation that by the NII fall over year-on-year, but we have is a question that though, our balance sheet and the pad has increased, but why the NII in 2025 has decreased?

Well, I think I have covered it in my presentation because of the reporting format, like as per the given guidance of -- from our regulator, we are supposed to follow that particular format. So in that case, what happens is that lending income is deducted from the overall deposit book. while all the deposit is not being used for the lending. A big amount of about 40% is also invested in our government boards and treasury. But when we report the income of that, we do not deduct that as per that given format. That's why this anomaly is. And that's why I mentioned that overall NII has grew about 31% year-on-year. So I mean, just to give you a sense, the lending spread, I mentioned about 5% for the first quarter. But at the same time, our overall, if we take all our interest-earning assets, our spread would be around 4.7%. That includes our investment in the government loans and T-bills and T-bonds. I hope I answered your question.

Yes. Thank you, Ms. The next question is that our balance sheet is growing. So do you think banks will need fresh capital or subdebt going forward?

Well, the kind of growth we had in the last 4 years is about roughly close to 30%. While given the current economic condition, we also plan for -- we moderated that. This year, as our end said, we are looking for about if everything goes well, 15% to 17%. But if the situation improves, we still can grow, we believe very strongly about therapy or even beyond that. So when -- if we want to continue to grow at that pace, we definitely need capital. But it is to be noticed that in the last 2 years, our internal capital generation has also been improved significantly, like we have delivered about BDT 16 billion last year, first quarter, as you can see, BDT 5 billion. Even after with this cash dividend, I think in next 2 years, our capital base will be beefed up. But if we want to grow at a 3% rate, yes, of course, we do have a plan. We have choked it out -- if we see that we can grow at that pace, definitely, we'll look into that raising our capital, of course.

Thank you, Masa. I had just one question left at my hand. The question is related to our home loan segment. So I think Mahiul way will be the right person to ask the question to my way. A few banks, including Stan Bank and Bank is have recently started offering single-digit home loan rates. -- does Brakbank have plans to increase its exposure to the home loan segment?

Okay. Thank you. So first of all, we are working rigorously to revamp our home loan, and we have already started seeing results that our home loan book started increasing the new acquisition has started increasing, thanks to Biogran regulations that the new limits have gone up, which is also given the opportunity. In terms of pricing, we will continue to follow our risk-based pricing approach and based on the bank's pricing policy, we will assign our rates accordingly. And just for the information that for all our loans, especially home loans, the pricing is actually based on a variable basis, and this is subject to a review on a periodic level. Thank you.

Thank you, Mimi. That's all from my side director, what do you.

Thank you, deb. If you don't have any questions, then we can conclude decision.

I don't have a questions.

Sorry? Okay. All right. I don't have questions. we can call decision with the closing remarks in closing. -- backend group remains resilient, diversified and well positioned for the future. Our continued success built upon leadership in SME banking, strong corporate relationships, rapidly growing retail banking an efficient and modern distribution network, robust risk management, leadership in sustainable finance, fintech innovations to bikes. And definitely, there has been also convuting a lot -- so altogether, these things enable us to treat sustainable long-term value for shareholders and all the stakeholders. On Four management team, I would like to thank our customers shareholders, regulators and colleagues for their continued trust and support. Good evening, and best for the rest of the evening. Thank you so much.