City Bank PLC. ($CITYBANK)

Welcome to City Bank PLC's Earnings Disclosure web event featuring the annual performance review of the year 2025, along with the first quarter of 2026. I am Syeda Saima Hossain, your host for the event. Welcoming you today. Thank you all very much for joining us. Today, we have here amongst us, the Honorable Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of City Bank PLC, Mr. Mashrur Arefin; Additional Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman; Deputy Managing Director and Head of Wholesale -- he is not here. And Deputy Managing Director and Head of Internal Control and Compliance, Mr. A.K.M Saif Kowchar; and Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Mohammad Firoz Alam. At City Bank, we take great pride in engaging the investment community in our endeavors. While disclosing our performances and actions, we adhere to a strict code of full transparency and responsibility. City Bank has always ensured its success not only in terms of its bottom line numbers, but also in terms of the goals it has set for itself in order to become one of the finest banks in Bangladesh. Our success is attributed to the continued growth of our business as well as the market's evolution to satisfy the increasingly sophisticated expectations of our respected clients in the areas of liquidity, service, reliability and mobility. We have made it this far with the help of our community team and stockholders by tenaciously adhering to the motor of service and trust. In light of this, we have gathered here today to discuss the bank's current financial situation and its forward-looking strategies. We shall start with our AMD and CFO, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman presenting the financial performance followed by our Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Mashrur Arefin, addressing all of them and finally end with a question-and-answer session. Before we proceed, I'd like to inform you all that whilst scheduling this event, we attempted to choose the most fitting time slot so that we could accommodate most of the participants from both local and foreign vicinities and time zones. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, I now request our AMD and CFO, Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman to start with the financial performance presentation. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Saima. I'm going to share the presentation. Hope you can see the presentation.

Yes. It's visible.

It's visible. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon from Bangladesh. First, I would like to give you some highlights about the macroeconomic and industry outlook. Then we will present the financial part for subsidy bank for 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. First flight, though actually it doesn't show any good news for the country as we are having very low growth rate at this moment. Historically, we have been enjoying about 6% GDP growth for a long time, but due to our domestic -- various domestic issues, the country is having, at this moment, very low GDP growth of 3.5%, but IMDB, World Bank, these organizations are projecting a little bit higher GDP growth for upcoming financial years. But as we are having new democratic government hope with their initiative. This picture will soon be much better than what we are having at this moment. [ Infin ] was one of the major challenges for the country and due to [indiscernible] policy of Central Bank and government they could contain the inflation from double digit to single digit, but due to recent Middle East crisis followed by full year crisis. And the infection again increased to 9.1% in February, but we have witnessed that is started -- it has already started declining and now has become below 9%. On the foreign exchange side, we are having actually a little bit degrowth in export -- in 9 months, the export figure is BDT 35.8 billion, which was BDT 37.2 billion, with 3.8% degrowth. But the good news is that in April, we have witnessed 33% export growth year-on-year. So we are hopeful that this growth will continue from now on. They are import both is almost stable. It's around BDT 54.6 billion in 9 months. But the good story is that we are still enjoying very high growth in remits. The monthly remittance is now more than $3 billion. And in 9 months, we have got $26.2 billion. And hopefully, we end the financial year with more than a $36 billion. Because of that, our overall foreign exchange exposure is very much positive and strong at this moment. FX result has improved to $29.5 billion as per the calculation of IMF. And current account deficit has also decreased, financial account position has become very positive. So from the -- the foreign exchange position is very stable and strong at this moment. Another challenge that we are facing is the lower private credit growth which is hovering around 6%. Again, due to election and new government. It's taking some time to get the momentum in private investment, but we are hopeful that it will get momentum very soon. Another challenge of the industry is the high NPL ratio. It shows that it is now 30%, which actually reach more than 30% --35% at certain point of time, but it has declined. But this is actually this multiactually kind of representative picture for the industry as a whole because this industry has very many good banks. So if you actually consider the NPL ratio of good banks, you'll see that the [indiscernible] ratio is 3%. So strong banks are having a very strong balance sheet and credit quality. Now we are showing you the picture of the City Bank performance for 2025. In 2025, our loan growth was 13.6%, and we reached BDT 506 billion. Interest income grew by 21.2% and reachedBDT 54.8 billion the higher increase of interest income because of the yield has improved from 9.8% to 10.5% year-on-year. And our loan book actually comprises of mostly wholesale banking, wholesale banking and then followed by retail banking and then macro final and medium and the card and agent banking. So our strategy is to have a diversified portfolio. We have been working on this strategy for a long time. And in 2025, we have witnessed that the growth in retail agent and small micro finance was much higher at the rate of 20% to 29%. But as the wholesaling and the medium segment growth was around 11%. So our growth in small retail segment was very high, and we are continuing with this strategy for upcoming years to diversify our portfolio and reduce -- manage risk in a better way. Deposits, on the other hand, grew by 22.8%. We have been enjoying very high deposit growth in consecutive 2 years. And 2025 was also a very good year for deposit growth and our deposit size was BDT 631.7 billion and and also -- but interest expense has increased because [indiscernible] Bank introduced actually a higher interest rate to contain inflation. So in line with the monetary policy, we had to actually increase the interest rate of the term deposit especially. So because of that, the cost of deposit has increased from 4.7% to 5.5%. But we also had a strategy to deploy these high-cost term deposit in a better way, we'll show you in the next slide. So most of the deposit comes from retail. You can see in the pie chart, is contributing 66% followed by wholesale banking with 24%. But our main strength is the continuous growth in current and service accounts. Last year, also, we added more than 300,000 customers. And our CASA volume growth is continuing. So if you look at the bottom of this presentation, you'll see that our CASA growth was 16.9% when actually, interest cost was very high. So we -- the growth in FPL was higher, definitely because we attracted deposit with higher interest rate in some deposits, but our growth in CASA is continuing. So that's why if you actually look at this graph, you would see that that we are maintaining the spread. We put a spread in 2025 very successfully. Our spread was -- which is shown in green color, which remain at 5%, which was 5.1%. So though there is a increase in deposit costs and our successful management of yield and and managing a right amount of current and savings account, we could maintain our spread at the rate of at 5% level. So investment, this is our strategy for a term basis because as the -- that is a low credit growth. So we deployed a significant actually a portion of the deposit in investment when [indiscernible] was very high and still high because it is part of the motor policy. So we are enjoying actually wood investment growth. And yes, here, you can see that it grew by 48% and the closing figure was BDT 207.9 billion, which increased from BDT 140 million. So also investment income also grew by 12% from BDT 16.9 billion to BDT 35.9 billion. And most of the income actually comes from interest income from the [indiscernible] bond, the amount to increase -- additional amount was BDT 50 billion. And also, we are also a capital gain from the same portfolio of BDT 4 billion. So out of BDT 19 billion increase, most of actually increment of income has come from to brand board natural. Then another pillar of the City Bank that is the trade business. And here, you can see that though the country's export is negative and import was around 4%, but in our case, our exposure was in business growth was almost 7%, and it reached $3.4 billion and import volume was $3.9 billion, with more than 9% growth. So our commission income also grew from BDT 5.1 billion to BDT 5.8 billion. And -- but FX, there is a little bit decline in FX income as market FX market was quite stable in 2025, and that's why there is almost a growth in FX income, but our commission income from credit business has grown satisfactory. The credit card is another main business of City Bank. We are the #1 credit card player in the market. And you can see that even in a low credit growth market, and when the inflation was high and overall economic activities was low, but even our -- even in this challenged situation, our credit got -- we had -- our cash card business actually grew in 2025. The base grew by 7.3%, and the credit card bill business has grew by 25.8%. And income also grew by 14.6%. So we are enjoying good growth in credit cut business. So overall revenue because of a good growth in interest income and investment income and also fee income and credit card business. Our overall revenue growth was 20.4% and it increased from BDT 39.7 billion to BDT 47.9 billion on a solo basis and consider which is almost the figure is set. Operating expense, on the other hand, it grew by almost 25%. And a major reason is the revision of our salary that we did in 2024, basically. And a result of this structure actually mostly came to BDT 5 million. And so because of the salary structure, new structure, this cost has increased by almost 5% from -- an increase from BDT 9 billion to BDT 2 billion. And also, we recruited employees in business segment to support our growth in business. Other operating expense on the other hand, you can see that there is a control growth. The growth rate was 13.7%. And the amount increased from BDT 8 billion to BDT 9.1 billion. And most of the investment actually has gone to digitalization of the bank and the increase of our distribution channel like new sub-brands brands and ATM measures. So here, we are ataxias already told. So I'm not actually elaborating it far. So on a summary basis, our operating profit grew by 16% at an increase from BDT 23.5 billion to BDT 27.2 billion. So 2024, again, we witnessed a very strong growth in operating profit. So after operating profit, then we charge our provision against loans and advance and other assets. So provision actually increased by 29.7% because because the industry as a whole actually gone through a pretty challenging situation. So we we address all risks by charging a locate provision in our P&L. So here, you can see that it increased from BDT 6.2 million to BDT 8.1 billion in 2025 billion. But NPL ratio has reduced by 3.7%, 2.5%. So amount also decreased from BDT 6.5 billion to BDT 1.6 billion. So NPL ratio has decreased and volume also decreased. On the other hand, because of the high charge or provision, you can see that our poison coverage ratio against actually has increased from 106% to 127%. So we feel that we are covering our res very strongly by keeping additional provision. So here is actually a summary of the performance of our subsidiaries. We have -- you know that we have 4 subsidiaries, one in City [indiscernible] The profit is only -- these are all small axis subsidiaries. So I'm not go into detail. But all subsidies are actually -- are profitable. So -- and the contribution is -- from [indiscernible] is BDT 58 million. We have a small subsidy in Hong Kong for financing for supporting our trade business. Their income is HKD 3 million in Malasia. We have a small remittance house is they have a little contribution, and our -- we have a margin band, their contribution is around BDT 82 million. So after considering the profit of subsidiaries, our net profit for 2025 was BDT 13.242.2 million. So it is the highest epo profit in City Bank history, increased significantly from more than 30% in 2025 from 2024. So -- and if you consider the overall 6 years profit. So if you compare it with 2029 when the profit was just only BDT 2.6 billion. So from '19, it has increased to BDT 13.2 billion. So we are actually giving consistent high return. And also at the same time, we are building the balance sheet in a very strong manner. So if you -- then the -- these are the few ratios. So especially which incurs our investor -- so return on equity, which is -- which was 24.4% in 2025 in 2014, it was 26%. So because of the increase of our equity, it has decreased -- still we think this is the highest actually ROE in the industry -- in the banking industry. Return on asset is 1.7%. Again, it is ONE of the highest ROA in the industry. And already Board has recommended dividend for 2025. We have recommended 15% stock and 15% cash. So any part here for 2025 was BDT 8.6. Again the highest level earning per share for City Bank history. And [indiscernible] also crossed BDT 40 in 2025. And capital addition ratio was 13.7% at the end of 2025. Tier 1 capital was 12.2%. So again, we are maintaining a very strong capital, which ensures the continuity of the growth of the bank. And we'd like to also share 1 information. It is also in the public domain that we are issuing fifth subordinated bond worth of PLN 2 billion. So it is also going to be the biggest bond to be issued by City once it will be in the balance sheet, this ratio will be improved around 17%. So again, this will ensure the high growth of the bank in coming years. Our rating of the bank, Moody's gives rating P2. This is the highest level rating available for the Bangalshi banks on the sovereign rating. And Crab is the leading rating company in Bangladesh, who raises City Bank as a triple-rated bank in the country. So this is the actually end of 2025. Then also, we like to take the opportunity to present Q1 quarter 1 result for 226 in the same product. So again, we are starting with loans and advance and interest to show what is the performance after the quarter 1 Loan and advance in this quarter grew by 3.2%. Actually, we are having also actually following very cautious step at this moment. So can this credit got is around actually 6%, but actually, mark-to-month credit growth is even lower. And at the same time, because of the election and change of government, we are taking some time to observe the situation, and we are -- that's why our growth is actually -- is very low in loan and advance. So -- and after the quarter end, our loan is BDT 522.4 billion. We started with BDT 560 billion that we have shown in the 2025 presentation. And interest income also grew by 4.6% and interest income in first quarter was BDT 13.3 billion, which was BDT 12.7 billion with 4.6% growth. Interest yield on advance actually improved a little bit by 10 basis part, and loans are advanced again, most of the loans, again, still coming from wholesale, our corporate and wholesale banking and our second position is held by retail and then microfinance and medium segment. So we are continuing our growth in retail, small and medium segment. At the same time, we are also slowly disbursing growing in Wholesale Banking. And after it when actually we observe a better situation, definitely, we can -- we are fully ready with liquidity capital to have much bigger growth. Deposit -- again, the growth in deposit is 4.3%, though in terms of passenger, it shows very -- it may show a very low figure. But in terms of the volume, you can see that we are in volume, the growth is quite significant and already cost deposit fees amount at the end of quarter 1 was BDT 358.9 billion. So soon, it will cost BDT 700 billion before the end of this year. Interest expense, on the other hand, increased by 13.9% steel and the tadpole rate is increasing. And we are actually basically still acquiring a good amount of deposit with some deposit because we have option to invest in alternative manner to improve the profitability of the bank. So cost of deposit is increasing. But at the same time, we are also deploying the fund in a profitable manner that also will show in the next slides. So against retail is contributing most of the deposit with 67%. Our CASA growth is continuing. In first quarter, we have added 71,000 customers. So you can easily see that still we are continuing new customers. And because of the increase of cost of deposit and slow growth in credit and also the little bit actually increase of NPL. Our yield on advance actually reduced from 10.5% to 10.2%, but our cost of deposit is increasing. So that's why for the time being, it is showing that our spread has decreased from 5% to 4.8%. But we have actually deployed this high-cost deposit in a high-yielding bill. So ultimately, we have recovered much higher return from this cost on this deposit. So here, you can see that our growth in investment is continuing. So the growth is around 16.7%. And at the end of the first quarter, the figure is BDT 244.4 billion and investment income also grew by 61% from BDT 6 billion to BDT 10 million. So our yield -- our investment in high-yield bond is continuing and this is already that I told you that it's a kind of short-term strategy. So who in action will have credit code easily, we can actually convert this investment atofrompeswel on to credit loans are at last. So export business is still growing. So compared to last year, last first quarter, our growth is around 1% with -- in first quarter figure was $896 million. import also grew significantly. We actually basically also supported the import of the fuel for the country. So here, you can see that the growth is 1.7% and already plus $1.2 billion already Citibank has become the leading #1 banking trade business among local banks. And in the industry, we are in the second position after his busy. So here also, you can see that we are still continuing pretty high growth in -- especially in the import business, which gives actually high commission income. So here, you can see that our commission income is increasing also in first quarter, the growth is around 20% altogether. And there is also a significant FX gain also. So credit card business. So another strong business pillar of the bank. Here also, we are continuing our growth. The cards grew by 7% -- and bill business also grew by 16% and income also grew by 47%. So we see another popular business for the bank. And overall, the revenue grew by almost 40% in first quarter. So again, it is probably 1 of the best first quarter we have in recent years. So revenue growth is 40% and reached BDT 13.1 billion. So after revenue, we deduct operating expense. So this year, our first quarter operating growth IS 17.6%. and staff cost has increased by 15%. And most of the staff cost increase because we are continuously expanding our investment in digital area. And also, we are expanding our distribution channel like sub-branch brands and Agent Point and other unit office. So for the business partners, we are recruiting employees, and after deducting operating costs, our operating profit is BDT 7.4 billion in first quarter with 6.1% growth. So again, it's a very strong word. We have actually produced in first quarter. And then after operating profit, our -- we have charged provision for the loan and advance. And the provision costs actually decreased compared to last year first quarter. But in precision has actually increased a little bit from 2.5%, 2.9% and [indiscernible] has increased from BDT 2.6 billion to BDT 14.9 billion. But provision coverage, we are still maintaining very good strong provision coverage with 126%. So after provision and after deducting tax, our operating profit is BDT 2.4 billion in first quarter, which was BDT 921 million. As the growth is 100 million 16%. So again, we have actually -- we could generate very strong actually profit growth in first quarter. So because of that, our ROE actually improved significantly compared to last year first quarter, the ROE was 8%. This year, first quarter ROE -- and return on asset was 5% in 2025 in first quarter and which improved to 1.1% after the end of first quarter of the year. Then also earnings per share improved from BDT 2.8 to BDT 6.2 and [indiscernible] also improved from BDT 35 to BDT 42.8. So because -- but because of the little bit increase of NPL, our actually capital actually decreased from December from 15.7% to 15.1%. But again, the issuance of bond that actually I have already told you that INR 1,200 crore a bond is ongoing. So after the end of second quarter will be an issue the whole amount of the bond, then this capital ratio will improve drastically and which will ensure the continuous growth of the business. Then we'd like to also give some glimpse of the sustainable financing, which is a very -- another part of the bank. For this, I'd like to request our Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Firoz, to to present our performance in sustainable financing. Firoz.

Thank you, Mohammad bhai, and very good afternoon, everyone. As you know, Citibank is an environmentally socially responsible bank. We are the country's first bank to be member of the United Nations Environment Programs Principle of Responsible Banking. Sustainability is an important part of our core value and business practice. Citibank is rated by the Central Bank as the #1 sustainable bank of Bangladesh in 2025. And Citibank also in the list of top sustainable bank for the last 5 years in a row. And the rating actually sustainable rating is based on the ESG performance as well as the core banking sustainability, whereas the core banking sustainability part is more than the ESG performance. And next slide. Okay. Now let's look at our performance in green and sustainable finance disbursement. In 2024, the sustainable finance target for the City Bank was around BDT 55 billion, where we disbursed around BDT 402 billion. And similarly, in 2025, sustainable finance target was around BDT 164 billion, where we disbursed around BDT 477 billion. The year-on-year growth for sustainable finance was 18.7%. And similarly, we have seen similar growth in the green finance. In 2024, the green finance target for the Citibank was BDT 7.29 billion, where we disbursed BDT 33.36 billion. And also in 2025, our green financing target was BDT 20.53 billion, where we disbursed TDT 54.28 billion. Year-on-year growth is 62.7%. oKAY, NEXT.

I have time to change the slide. I don't know why.

To disclose our ESG impact in 2025, we published our first ever GRI standard ESG report. Similarly, we have also published our first ever IFRS S1, S2 aligned climate report as part of sustainability-related financial disclosure. We also disbursed in low-carbon energy-efficient machinery for BDT 15.89 billion in 2025, also disbursed BDT 2.23 billion to renewable energy project. And we also financed in 60 LEED-certified clients with finance for BDT 3.43 billion. We also take care of our in-house sustainability as part of this, we installed solar system on our 74 branches and sub-branches and 30 ATMs and 27 outlets. Next slide. Already mentioned that we are the first in Bangladesh, we become the member of the UNFI. And we also joined in PCAP partnership for the carbon accounting financials to measure our emission more accurately and report more transparently. And recently, we have signed MOU with UND to collaborate on ESG, climate finance and green bond. As already mentioned some achievement, Citibank has received many awards that shows its strong performance in sustainability. We are the #1 sustainable bank and top sustainable bank list in the last 5 years. And City Bank also featured in the Bloomberg ESG for the first time in 2025. And in addition to -- we have also received many awards from the local and international bodies on ESG. This is our last ESG report in 2024. You can -- 2024 scan this QR code on your mobile device for the quick access to the ESG report. And this is also first climate report. I am complying the IFRS S1, S2, and you can scan this and quick for the mobile device for quick access to the access of our climate report. Thank you, Mohammad. Now over to you.

So we are almost at the end of the presentation. Actually, before closing our presentation and handing over to the session to our MD. I just would like to highlight that Citibank not only just growing our business, and we have already done significant achievement in sustainable finance. And this is a new addition for City Bank that we like to create a very good working environment -- so the main asset of the bank is the human resource. So we like to actually create our gender equal environment in our bank. So we have already got certification from EDGE, which actually stands for Economic Dividend for gender equality. And we are the first bank or first Bangladesh organization in the country who has got this certification after thorough audit. And they have 3 level of certification. It starts with entry level, which they call [indiscernible], then [indiscernible] and [indiscernible]. So many -- like many global organization, actually, we got our certificate for -- at the second level. So already many organization starts with the entry level, but we actually got a very good recognition from age and our level is moved and which actually kind of ensure that we are practicing very fair HR policy and which is very much conducive for gender equality in our working place. And this is also another recognition that we have received from the Financial Times as the best bank in Bangladesh for 2025. And these are some other awards that we have received. I'm not going to detail because already actually this information has been shared with you before. So with this, actually, I'd like to end my presentation. Now handing over to Saima for the next session. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to call upon Mr. Mashrur Arefin, Managing Director and CEO of City Bank PLC to speak about the views and forward-looking strategies of the bank.

Hello. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Mahbubur, and you've done a brilliant presentation. Nice, everything covered. And Firoz, for sustainability. First of all, my apology that I'm in a dress down mode today due to some personal reasons. I'm actually not doing office. So now to talk about this, I know that you are all investors mostly listening to City Bank's good result of last year and a fantastic result in the first quarter of this year. It has -- both the results actually last year has put us as the second most profitable bank in this country, BRG Bank being at the top, then we are just one notch below them in terms of profit, and then there is Pubali Bank. Only 3 of us have a BDT 1,000 crore BDT mark in terms of net profit. So we have already been doing fantastic during last 6 years that I'm at the helm of affairs. Bank's operating income has grown 3.1x and operating profit has also traveled from INR 690 crores to almost BDT 2,700 crores last year. So -- and this profit after tax is also has grown by many fold. Actually, yes, that has also seen a 4.5x of increase. That's all about profitability. It shows our efficiency. It shows our ability to manage bad debts, ability to manage -- sorry, the asset quality, sorry, and also our ability to attract deposits by virtue of being a good banking brand at a cheaper cost and to maintain the right amount of -- right kind of net interest margin. So we are doing better in those areas. Of course, there are, as Mahbubur mentioned, countries, GDP growth has slowed down. This new democratically elected government now in charge. A lot of things are in plus now. We do not know in which way things are heading. But at the same time, I would like to say that our 2 main sources of foreign currency, which is our remittances and exports. Remittances are doing phenomenally well. Export is again rising and import is also rising. There is a little bit of trade gap, but at the current account level is in surplus. Financial account is also doing better. Balance of payment is in positive, not negative. Now the problem is this Iran war, which has started and not ending and a lot of tension going on in the market about this. Earlier, the tension was with regard to dollar devaluation, but we have not seen much of a demand of dollar. That's the reason the dollar price is still stable at 122, 123 range. But outside world was looking at the banking sector reform. So it is -- it has come to some sort of -- we need to give it time to see which way this goes, this reform. It's a new government, a lot of things we are hearing, but Central Bank governor has -- new government has already said that he will pursue the reform and these 5 merged entities will continue to merger is valid. The merger will not be undone. -- et cetera, we are seeing in the press. And with regard to Banking Company Act amendment, that work is also ongoing right now. But banks like City and a few other good banks, I would say that we are insulated from the weak performance of the many local banks or we are ring-fenced more technically speaking, effectively ring-fenced from the problems of the weaker institutions. We do not have much of an interconnectivity. So we are doing good. We'll be keeping on doing better as is -- I will not go into numbers as is evident in our first quarter result. We will see that our interest income on a $5.2 billion lending book that is coming with a NIM of around 4.8%, 4.9%. Our deposit LCR ratio is the biggest testament to our bank's continued liquidity flow. LCR is above 200% liquidity coverage ratio. Our provision-wise also, provision coverage ratio is good, 125% or so. Our NPL is showing is very low, but actually, it is perhaps not that low. There is a lot of government intervention going on. some sort of facilities given to business houses, which is -- they are enjoying certain rescheduling benefit for which it is showing around that. But I think even the good banks, they are not in any range with regard to NPL, which can cause worry. Like City Bank, in total, even the rescheduling book put together, it will be in the range of 5%, 6%. And all good banks are same, whereas the bad banks in Bangladesh, they have NPL of above 30%, above 40%. I mean to say that picture with regard to NPL maybe is not as rosy as the number says, but also for Citibank, there is no worry. We -- right now, today also, we are keeping additional provision of around $30 million. This is kept in the general provision. Whenever needed, we will change it or turn it into a specific provision against accounts. But we have effectively done something very good. We have formed a committee regularly weekly basis, we are sitting. One by one, we are identifying our problem accounts. We are a bank of 45 years old, a lot of legacy inheritance and all that. We have very good income flow now. Income is growing at that rate, which you have seen that income revenue growth is 39%, 40% revenue growth. Cost growth is or 17.7%. That automatically tells you these 2 numbers that what is the Citibank's core strength. Our revenue is growing. Our cost is not growing at that rate. We don't have any of those bad kind of assets that other few other mini banks carry. Certain good banks are of actually regional class or global class in Bangladesh, and I'm proud to say that Citibank is one. We have great corporate culture. We have great sources of earning. Our -- Mahbubur has already mentioned how much at what rate our retail and card and small microfinance portfolios are growing, around 30% rate. But we have slowed down the growth in corporate and commercial and medium. Right now, there is no such credit growth as well, people because Iran war is raging and people -- business people are taking -- still taking their time to invest into BMRE and other big projects. plus government projects, which is a big portion of the total economic activity in the country, we are not so far seeing any big government projects being taken up. So after that, credit growth also will happen, then there will be time to grow in those 3 large big ticket sector like corporate and commercial and medium. But in the meantime, we are fully focusing on the growth of the nonfunded business in the sense that in pushing the trade volume upward because it gives us very good LC commission earning. So last year, it was the country's highest trade volume and this year with 8.02 billion. This year, we are chasing a $10 billion among the banking sector's largest trade bank we want to be after HSBC, of course, but HSBC is a foreign institution. Now other than that, I would like to say that we are -- the worry that I see among the investors that if the industry is performing so bad, what is your systemic risk? I personally would like to say that because it is that kind of a large economy where a few banks will always be needed and a few of these banks, City being one of the top 3, we are -- we have decoupled ourselves from the risk that that largely decoupled from that weaker local banks, we have no interconnectivity. So don't worry. I believe -- keep believing in Citibank. Right now, there is no credit growth, but huge amount of deposit is coming to Citibank. There is an LCR ratio is above 200%. And there are other AD ratio is also much below the mark where we could reach. Right now, growth of the bank will be in those 3 lending sectors plus also digital alone. And also just to service our corporate and medium existing customers, there will be certain drawdowns and certain facilities always be available. But at the same time, we'll take the opportunity now that we are getting so much of deposits. So we will -- of course, we'll take the opportunity of making money on a short-term basis from treasury billboard, which we are doing treasury billboard investment -- treasury billboard investment from this first quarter, first quarter investments around 32% has come from treasury billboard. That is to say that 68% is still coming from core businesses. So we know exactly what we are doing. We are playing a smart game smartly. We are a very well-reputed brand. Now our biggest dream is to launch our digital bank, which is coming as a department of Citibank. I think with another 3 months' time, we will be a big competitor to this MFS player, which is very big in the country with whom we do digital nanoone. So I look forward to that launch of the digital bank. And in all the areas, credit card, retail, small microfinance, so fee income, trade-based commission income, interest income from a $5 billion lending book plus also maintaining a low-cost deposit base and plus also investing the surplus deposit that we carry into treasury bill bond. This is our goal and the goal is to also exit the few of the stressed accounts that we have. We formed this committee named SarROk, Strategic Asset Recovery and oversight committee every week meeting is happening. We have a happy employee base. We have a great brand name. Our stock price also give us time. It will -- if Iranwa was not there, by this time, I would have been more or less near NAV price, at least we would have reached. So it will ultimately go there. Just let's hope that this war between Iran and U.S. Israel ends. And new government, they have very good intent let me see, let us -- we are waiting for right amount of growth and inflation control, which they are trying to do. It's not easy when prices of essential commodities is going up because already the country has corrected the fuel prices. So a little worry, of course, there because we are big in retail and card and a small and microfinance businesses. But let's see. We have a very good team. I'm not at all worried. I believe 2027, '26 is going to be a brilliant year. First quarter is -- morning shows the day. Thank you. Thank you all.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached our Q&A session. I'll read out the first question. Average ROE was 24.1% in last 2 years. Do you expect ROE to continue at this level this year?

That's our target to maintain the ROE at that level. Our profitability level, definitely, we have a plan to maintain the profitability and hope that there won't be any big surprise in the overall industry. So if things are -- what -- if we have a stable situation, and there is no reason to have a decline in ROE that -- from the present level.

Moving on to the next question. What's your outlook for loan growth for 2026 and 2027, given GDP growth is expected to be slow?

Our growth is always higher than our GDP growth you have seen from our past record. So we are actually growing more in other segment, small segment. So growth in retail, microfinance, nano lending is very high. But because their pie in the overall pie chart is lower. So that's why overall loan growth is not showing significant. So when we have actually growth in corporate segment, then it becomes a significant growth for the bank. So we hope that from June or second quarter, there will be considerable growth from the corporate segment because then the government have a new budget, and they will have a new ADB plan and government will take initiative to start large projects. So all -- everything will have impact on the credit growth. And also, we haven't seen any major BMRE in our export segment, basically the garment industry. So we already have started receiving good response from international market in garments. But again, if there is a slowdown in Europe and U.S.A., then things will be deferred. But we are expecting that they will need to replenish their stock. So they will place more orders. Our garment industry, they will also start investing in the modernization of their factories. So this will also help us to grow in the corporate segment. Then you will see a significant growth in our balance sheet. But our -- again, just I'm repeating that our growth in other segment is growing quite fast. p

Moving on to the next question. How can City Bank decrease NPL below 2% in the future?

Thank you for the question. Actually, if you see, you observed that the last couple of years, we -- our NPL is reducing. Last year, I think that 2024, it was more than the 3%. And last year, it goes down to 2.5%. And our effort is to continue to improve our NPL and quality of portfolio, definitely. It's -- we -- our target and our strategy to continue to reduce the NPL. As part of this, our MD already mentioned that we already increased the SMT level overseas and the monitoring. And also, we already -- strategy is set for the diversify the portfolio and also aggressive aggressive recovery, we have dedicated SMD team, dedicated collection team. They are more focusing on the aggressive recovery of the overdue portfolio. And to address the early stage, we also have the early warning system to address the before to arrest the NPL and also definitely to review the underwriting standard and for the quality booking in the future.

Moving on to the next question. What role will digital banking and ecosystem partnerships play in long-term strategy?

think that is the ultimate for banking in our kind of economy where most of the people, they have money, but those are mattress money. Those are not kept into the system. So it's a great source of low-cost deposit, plus also when corporate commercial kind of loans are showing such a dark history, big tickets and all, it's better to grow in that particular segment digitally, like City Bank's digital nanolone is the only digital nan loan in the country right now. We are giving it to the Bikash clientele in the Bikash MFS company app, which is bikash'bank subsidiary, but they do lending business with us. Capital is ours, credit risk is ours and the preaious customer base and see how much we have given money. We have given more than INR 7,000 crores, which is more than nearly USD 700 million of 20,000 loan, which is almost nothing in terms of loan ticket size, whereas NPL ratio is hovering around 2% only. So this is also credit risk point of view, good. Economic development point of view is also good, plus also you are taking only that much of an exposure on a particular borrower. So -- and you are dealing with millions of customers, all of them will not go bad. So given the trend that has been going on, the banking sector, the lessons learned by the sector, and given the fact that most of the corporates are actually overleveraged in a country like ours where there are too many banks and customers easily take too many of banking facilities to try to do so many things. It is retail cards, digital lending, digital banking. These are the sectors to grow in a country of around 200 million people, where 83% population is unbanked. But they do have money, they earn -- they keep those money under the mattress. So we want to take financial inclusion very seriously.

Moving on to the last question of this event. How does management plan to balance aggressive growth with rising credit risk in the current macro environment?

We don't have any aggressive growth plan because -- but we have a good growth plan. So balanced growth plan. That's why you see from our balance sheet trend, growth trend, then you see that some year, we are growing in credit, some year, we're growing in investment. But thing is that our -- because of our strength of brand and the governance structure, we are receiving huge amount of deposit. So we have to also invest this deposit in the right way. So we are -- so we are assessing the risk. We are assessing the opportunity. Based on that, we take strategy. Sometimes we have long-term strategy, midterm strategy as well as short-term strategy. So you have to be agile. So that's what actually you have seen that when actually we have opportunity to invest in treasury bill and bond, we have invested here in this segment to actually to have a continuous growth in bottom line and also manage the risk in the right manner because ultimately, we have to ensure the actually trust of our depositors. That is the #1 issue of the bank. So we are maintaining our agility and we are also taking the opportunity at the right time as we are -- we have that flexibility. And when actually we have the opportunity, then we'll grow in loans and advance. And advantage of Citibank is that our portfolio is diversified. We have strength in all segments of the industry from nano lending to large corporate lending. So whenever -- based on the opportunity, risk level, we will take our position. So the aggressive growth terminology is not appropriate for us. We actually basically do growth in a pretty balanced manner.

Thank you. Thank you all for your insightful answers. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of today's earnings disclosure event. Thank you all for your participation and patience. Before concluding, let me inform you that the recorded version of the entire event will be made available in the same web link as the live program very shortly. Those of you who missed the event or want to stream through it at a later time will find the whole event documented there. The financial presentation will also be available in City Bank's website under the Investor Relations section. We appreciate your participation and patience. Thank you again for your interest in City Bank PLC. Goodbye. Stay safe and stay well.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.