City Bank PLC. (CITYBANK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to City Bank PLC's earnings disclosure web event of the second quarter of 2026. I am Syeda Saima Hussain, your host for the event, welcoming you today. Thank you all very much for joining us, even though we're 5 minutes into the session due to some technical issue. Anyway, we will go on. 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 Banking, Mr. Mesbaul Siddiqui; Deputy Managing Director and Head of Internal Control and Compliance, Mr. A.K.M. Saif Ullah 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 measured 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 respective 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 motto 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 you and finally end with the question-and-answer session. Before we proceed, I'd like to inform you all that while scheduling the event, we attempted to choose the most fitting time slot so that we could accommodate most of the participants, both from 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.

Hope you can see the presentation.

Yes, it's visible.

[Foreign Language] and good afternoon. It's a great pleasure to meet you again with our half yearly results. Like before, we'll start the presentation with a little bit glimpse about the macroeconomic situation and later in second part, we'll present the financial performance and position of the City Bank after the end of 30 June 2026. First, actually, we all know that what is the current GDP growth rate is hovering around 4%. So -- but we are projecting to have higher GDP growth in next financial year. Inflation was a concern, but after the end of June, we have seen that a little bit deep in inflation. And export growth, though we have a quite significant year-on-year growth in June, almost more than 25%. Overall export remained at same level compared to last year, which is $48.4 billion. Import has seen growth from $68 billion to $74 billion with 8% growth. But the main foreign currency source is remittance, which has seen a significant growth of 17% and the overall remittance has become $35.5 billion in 1 year. And FX reserve also showing a strong position with $32.9 billion. Overall, current account deficit has actually reduced significantly. Financial account position has improved because of the growth in remittance and stability in export. Private sector credit growth is low. We all know that. It's also around 5%. NPL ratio of the industry is still very high. But actually, that doesn't give the true picture of the good banks in the country. If you consider the NPL ratio of the peer banks, for example, NPL ratio of BRAC Bank, Pubali Bank and other good banks, the ratio is less than 4%. Now I'm now actually highlight the financial performance of City Bank. I'm starting with the main activities of the bank, that is the loans and advance. City Bank actually done very good considering the overall credit growth situation, we have seen that, which is below 5%. And -- but City Bank loan has grown by 8.4% from the beginning of the year. And interest income has also grown by 5.4% year-on-year. And interest yield on advance also remained almost at the same level. Most of our loan portfolio is in wholesale banking, though which is 58% at this moment, though it was 61%. It means that actually our other segment, which is part of the City Bank strategy to diversify our portfolio has increased significantly in the last 6 months. And I already have told you that our loan growth is more than 8%. Then deposit also, like last 2 years, our deposit is also growing very significantly. From December, our deposit has grown by 15.6% and we ended the June with BDT 729 -- almost BDT 730 billion equivalent of deposit. And interest expense on the other hand, actually increased by 4.4%. Also, cost of deposit also remained at the same level for us. Actually, why our interest expense only grew by 4.4% because our borrowing costs actually reduced significantly because as we have significant growth in deposit, we have reduced our borrowing. So that's why we could save a significant cost in under interest expense. Again, retail banking actually contributes the most for our deposit. You can see that 60% -- 64% of the deposit is coming from retail, which was around 61% 1 year before. So that means that our retail business of City Bank is growing quite fast. Though CASA ratio is around 42%, it was 43% because we have booked term deposit because interest rate was quite high. So naturally, depositor actually has chosen term deposit more when they open account with us. But still, we are acquiring a significant amount of current account -- current SME account continuously. So overall spread situation has remained at the same level. We started with 5% spread and still it is 5% because you have seen that our yield on advance and cost of deposit almost remained at the same level. Investment on the other hand, has actually we have high deposit growth. On the other hand, our credit growth is 8%, which is not significant for us. So as we have a significant surplus liquidity, still we are investing in treasury bill and bond, which is reflected here. You can see that from December, our investment amount has increased by 46% and the current outstanding is BDT 303.5 billion. And accordingly, our investment income has also increased by 15.5% from BDT 16.5 billion to BDT 19.1 billion year-on-year. Export -- though country's export is actually basically has become stalled at this moment. So there is almost no growth in export. But in our case, our export business has grew by 12.4% from $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. And our import has also increased significantly from $1.7 billion to $2.6 billion with 53% year-on-year growth. Accordingly, our commission and other income from this business has increased by 17.2% year-on-year and here also, you can see that both commission and FX gain has increased in the last 6 months. Credit card business is one of the strength of City Bank. And here, you can see that our credit card base is increasing, though we all know that we have relatively low GDP growth, but still our credit card business is growing around by more than 7% and number is increasing. And credit card volume bill business is also increasing. In last -- year-on-year, we have achieved almost 18% growth. And also credit card income also seen a significant growth in -- year-on-year basis. We have achieved 38.6% growth in credit card income. So altogether, our revenue has grown by 17% year-on-year. And on a consolidated basis, our revenue has reached BDT 26.7 billion from BDT 22.9 billion. So -- and on the other hand, operating expense has actually grown a little bit higher in this year and with 23.4% year-on-year growth. And in 6 months, our operating expense has reached BDT 12.3 billion. And major reason for increase of operating expense is that as our business is growing very fast, we are recruiting quite significantly. 95% [Technical Difficulty] retail and [Technical Difficulty] we are having significant growth in this [Technical Difficulty] we have added [Technical Difficulty] employees in our [Technical Difficulty] shows that City Bank is actually has grown very fast, and we see more prospects in coming years. And also in last [Technical Difficulty] we have added around 15 number of new branches. So we have expanded our back office and [Technical Difficulty] more than 134,000 square feet office space in last 1 year. So -- and also our investment in IT for achieving our digital goal is also going on significantly. So altogether, actually, our operating expense has increased quite significantly, but it is for investment purpose and ensuring the growth of the bank in coming days. So operating profit after deducting OpEx from the revenue has increased by 12% year-on-year and reached BDT 14.4 billion in the last 6 months. After operating profit, we deduct provision debt charge. So our debt charge actually has reduced actually compared to last year 6-month debt charge, reduced by 27.8% year-on-year. Last year, in the same period, we charged BDT 6.5 billion. Here, actually, we charge -- in 6 months, we charged BDT 4.7 billion. And our NPL ratio, though actually has increased, but because of the calculation as per the regulation, our debt charge has reduced. But still, we are maintaining a significant additional provision. Here, you can see in our provision coverage ratio, which has increased from 127% to 132.8%. That means our risk is covered. So this is actually -- we have 4 other subsidiaries which are not actually significant in terms of the operation and the business and the profit contribution. So after considering the net profit of subsidiaries, our overall profit has increased by almost 75% year-on-year. And in last year -- in first 6 months, we have achieved BDT 3.01 billion of profit after tax. And in this first 6 months, we have achieved BDT 5.2 billion of profit after tax. So it's a significant increase in profit after tax. So -- and I think actually, this is one of the highest ever half yearly result of City Bank Group. So accordingly, our ROE has actually increased from 2025. Last year, in the same period, our ROE on a consolidated basis was 12.7%. In this year, our last -- for the first 6 months, our ROE is 16.5%. Accordingly, ROA has increased from 0.8% to 1.1%. And earnings per share also increased from BDT 1.72 per share to more than BDT 3 in the first 6 months. NAV or book value per share has also increased from BDT 35.37 on a consolidated basis to BDT 37.6. And capital adequacy ratio, which is actually basically very important considering the overall rate scenario. And here, you can see that our capital adequacy ratio has also improved significantly from the beginning of the year, we -- from 15.7% to 16.3%. And especially in the last 6 months, we have raised almost BDT 11 billion worth of subordinated bond to support our business growth. So we declared that we are going to raise BDT 12 billion of subordinated bond and out of BDT 12 billion, almost we have raised BDT 11 billion. It also shows the credibility and the acceptability of the City Bank in the bond market as well. So this is the credit rating position of the bank. As per Moody's credit rating, as we cannot go beyond the country's credit rating, our credit rating is B2 according to Moody's. But the leading credit rating company of Bangladesh has rated City Bank as a AAA, and we are still continuing this rating for last 1 year. These are -- I'll actually discuss a little bit new thing in next 2, 3 slides. We have added actually a few new businesses in the last 3, 4 years. And here is the -- some of the success story that we'd like to share with you. You know that City Bank is the first bank who has introduced nano lending in the country. And already, we have actually added 3.5 million unique customers. And already, we have disbursed BDT 100 billion worth under nano lending through digital platform. And the good thing is that out of total lending, 63% has gone to the rural area. And also female customer is around 22% when the overall country is actually female customer for the banking industry is 19%. So this is actually basically a great success for the financial institution and the digital strategy for the bank. And another thing, we think is that we have revamped our Citytouch, which is -- we think that we're the #1 mobile app in the country. Also, the volume has grown by 14% in this year. So after the revamp of the restructure of the Citytouch, we hope that this will actually have a significant impact on the growth of our bank. And here also, we'd like to actually share what the -- what is the customer profile of the bank. The interesting thing is that in last 5 years, our credit -- our lending customer has increased actually 12x in 5 years. Like if you look at the pyramid, you can see that our lending customer number was around 0.35 million, which has increased to more than 4 million after the end of 30 June. And also out of this total customer, about 29% is customers are female. So it's also much higher compared to industry standard. And if you look at the deposit account holder, which has also increased continuously, even 1 year before, it was 2.75 million and which has increased to 2.92 million. And out of that, 84% are maintaining current and savings accounts with the bank. So it means that actually City Bank are providing a lot of banking service, and we are attracting this low-cost deposit by providing this various kind of service. And we are becoming -- we have already become a #1 choice for the retail customer. So now I'll hand over my -- my part to our CRO, who will actually present our progress in the sustainable finance. So Firoz, you may start.

Thank you, Mohammad, and good afternoon. As you all know, City Bank is an environmentally and socially responsible bank. We are country's #1 sustainable bank rated by the Bangladesh Bank. Sustainability is an important part of our core values and business practice. Considering this, we also set our objectives and strategy in sustainable finance and ESG. Let's have a look at our objective and strategy about our sustainability. We categorize our objectives in brought 2 criteria. One is the expanding green finance portfolio and also climate and ESG risk management of City Bank portfolio and internal operation. Expanding green finance portfolio, the main objective is to expand here because of the -- by this financing, we can reduce carbon emission and also we can prevent environment pollution. And also, you know the NPL of this green financing is very low. At this moment, our NPL is 0.01%. Our industry is less than 1%. One of the major objective why we are going there. And also, it creates a customer -- win-win situation for the bank as well as the customer because of we are arranging low-cost financing for the customer for the green financing and another objective is to meet the Central Bank targets. To capture this or achieve these objectives, we already set our long-term -- long-term capital planning for the green investment. We're already sourcing low-cost funding from BB, DFI and MDBs are also planning to green bond and also to building capacity for awareness of the customers as well as the internal stakeholders. Also, we take a lot of objectives in the climate ESG management. We already take initiatives for the measuring 100% carbon emission of our portfolio as well as the operation -- internal operation, also implement climate risk management and also assessing environmental social risks. To implement this, we already implement the climate and environmental social risk management policy, green office guideline, occupational health safety guideline, also automated our ESDD software. And we also developed our internal in-house calculation of the emission by help of the Deloitte. And on top of, we also appoint the pickup -- join with pickup model. Next. And this is brief of our achievement in the sustainable financing. We already in the first half of this year, we disbursed almost BDT 92 billion in sustainable finance and BDT 8.7 billion in green finance. And we have another portfolio in liability side, we have the green savings account. Till date, we already opened almost 58,000 account. The deposit amount of this fund, actually, we're using the green and sustainable financing. And also, we planted tree for the [indiscernible] account. And this is also brief of our green financing activities, and we disbursed BDT 43.5 million in the renewable energy project, funded BDT 1.6 billion in LEED and Green Certified Clients and financed BDT 1.2 billion in the Energy & Resource efficiency and also disbursed BDT 9 billion in agri loan in the first half of 2026. And we also already mentioned that as part of our carbon emission calculation, we already Scope 1 -- calculating Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. And we also generated 8.2 megawatt solar energy through establishing or installation of the solar panel in our branches, subbranches, RATM and agent outlets. And also, we established 10 rainwater harvesting in our branch and head offices. This is actually our recognition or participation with the international bodies and organizations. This -- we already are the member of the UN Environment Program Finance initiatives under this principle of responsible banking. We are the first bank from the Bangladesh. And we also signed MOU with UNDP for collaboration of ESG, climate risk and green bond. And we also joining the PCAF already mentioned that the calculation of the carbon accounting financials on top of our initial development of the calculating of the carbon and green financing. And also the -- we have the work with a lot of development partners, Global Climate Partnership Fund, Norfund, ADB, AIIB, OEB and BII. This is our recognition by the local and international bodies. You know we are the top #1 sustainable bank rated by the Central Bank, and we also top sustainable banks for the last 5 years in a row. And we also awarded by the -- rated by the Bloomberg and also rated by the international bodies. This is our -- one of the initiatives for the reporting -- ESG reporting, and this is available in our website. You can -- I scan QR. And also, this is our climate report. This report is actually on the December 2024. Our latest report is in on the process, and it will be uploaded in the very shortly. And very recently, City Bank is awarded at the most Sustainable Bank of the Year 2026 by the SDG Brand Champion. And also -- this is also awarded by City Bank Bangladesh most Green Finance Bank of the Year awarded by Asian Banking Finance Wholesale Banking Award 2026. That's all, Mohammad, from my end.

Okay. Thank you, Firoz. Sustainable finance and ESG is a core strategy of City Bank. Before providing financing to our customer, we also assess the ESG condition of the customer. Accordingly, we set the risk rating, ESG rating as well as the mitigation measure with every customer. So it is very much a core business process of City Bank. This is the last slide of the bank. Actually, you have already seen that we have got a huge recognition for the success of our sustainable financing. Also, in the last 6 months, we have got a few more awards and most notable award is by Financial Times, which has actually awarded City Bank as the Best Bank for Bangladesh for 2025. And we have also got other awards as the best retailer or also Best Bank by other global finance magazine. So with that, actually, I'd like to end my presentation, and I'm handing over this session to Saima. Again. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Very big thanks to our MD and CFO and Chief Risk Officer for such an insightful presentation on the financial performance. 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. Over to you.

Thank you, Saima. Thank you, our additional MD and CFO, Mahbubur Rahman; and our Chief Risk Officer, Firoz Alam, for giving such a brief good outlook of the bank. As you see it after the end of the first 6 months. I would like to say as the CEO of the institution that to be honest, things are going good for City Bank. It's very much written in the financials, as you can see. And there are certain risks there because of the regulatory policy-related changes. Number one is we need to maintain -- we'll have to maintain 4% spread, which right now, our spread is 4.8%. It hovers around 5%. So 1% spread, we will lose when we comply with this. So there will be a blow that's coming out of it on our profitability. This is one. Another thing you know that in Bangladesh is going to adopt ECL, expected credit loss. As soon as that happens, though we have certain time, we have 1 year and a few months in hand, but we need to get ready. This is number two. Number three is that expected credit loss will actually not consider a lot of the rescheduled books as performing loans. So we'll have to -- we'll need to keep provision against those. So there is another worrisome thing that's going to happen for the industry, not only for City Bank its for all. Earlier also spread is for all. That circular has already come. The number three big issue is going to be that policy rate has shifted from 50 basis points only last week. So that will -- also, this is connected to the 4% spread in whichever way we reduce the deposit rate, which we have done today. We'll also have to reduce the lending rate. But this whole thing will be managed or need to be managed, keeping in mind that 4% is the net spread that the bank can charge. Giving these 3 little bit of a negative outlook about the banking industry, now let me get to the point. Risks will always be there, situations will always change, regulatory will always adapt to different means and procedures to take care of the entire macro economy. So there will be this kind of challenges always there in new, new forms and formats. So we are not too worried about it. What we look at are the basics. The basics of City Bank is speaking very highly high about us as a team, like say, our income, what I would like to call the #1 thing, whether earning is growing or not, whether your income is stagnant or not. You can look at last year's first 6 months, Mahbubur has already explained, there was BDT 2,620 crores was the earning of the bank in this first 6 months' time. And that income is actually -- just give me a second, it is -- okay, let me get into income minus expense, the ultimate PAT terms because there are so many numbers in front of me. Simple, BDT 301 crore or USD 25 million was last year's first half months. And this year, it has come to BDT 526 crores or USD 42 million. USD 25 million to USD 42 million, which is 74.9% growth in profit after tax. So as a solo basis, City Bank has done BDT 518 crores. Consolidated basis, City Bank has done BDT 527 crores. BDT 9 crore has been added by 4 of the subsidiaries of City Bank. We are not so lucky as to have such a successful subsidiary as BRAC Bank has in the form of bKash. Our one is brokerage subsidiary, one is capital market subsidiary, one is remittance company in Malaysia and finance company, trade facilitation company in Hong Kong, all of them together has given us BDT 9 crore, a little less than USD 1 million. So the bank itself is a very much is a big one. Bank has booked BDT 518 crore which is in total together, it has brought in BDT 526 crores, which is USD 42 million. Now as I was looking at the total income figure, that figure now I have in my hand, last year, -- last year first 6 months, can you give me? Last year first 6 months, I need to complete my sentence since I mentioned that, I will give you that figure. Now with regard to certain other things, I would like to say is that you have seen the growth of -- yes, last year's first 6 months was BDT 2,290 crores, BDT 22,908 million. And this year, it is BDT 2,679 crores. So there is a change in volume by around BDT 4,000 crores, which is 17% growth in the operating income of the bank. Meaning at the operating line, we are earning good. We are earning stably, very good. And also here, I would like to mention that the cost-wise also, if you look at the operating cost number, which just give you a second. Finally, I've got the paper that I was looking for. Operating cost-wise, it has been -- operating income, 18% growth, operating cost 26% growth. Of course, that leaves us with an operating profit of BDT 1,422 crores, which itself shows profit growth of 12% profit growth. But at the after-tax level, because of the lower tax we needed to pay and the provision requirement coming below what was anticipated, the operating -- after-tax profit has grown by 72%. Now I would like to say that -- on the provision side, if you look at another good side of the bank, provision in this last 6 months, we have kept for BDT 465 crores provision. But additionally, there is something like BDT 300 crores additional provision kept in the form of the general provision for certain loans, which we reckon may actually turn bad, but we have additionally kept certain provision to withstand the shocks that may come. Overall, to sum up this, the good sides are we are commending a good yield on advance, which is above 10%, around 10.5%. We are still able to maintain the cost of deposit, though taking certain high interest deposits in order to fund our investment plan into government securities. So still cost of deposit has retained -- has been retained at 5.5%, 5.6%. So overall, we have been able to command a NIM of around 5%, 4.8%, 4.9%, which is the #1 thing, I would say. Overall, our cost/income ratio is -- when I became the CEO, it was 58%. Overall, in last year, we ended at 44%. Previous year, it was 42%. 2023 was at 51%. But right now, even after 6 months of certain new costs that we have taken due to our IT expenditure, mainly our future Dream project, which is a digital bank of ours and our new Citytouch Internet banking has been launched. All this has pushed up the cost plus also investment into small and microfinance business. Even after all this cost-income ratio for the first 6 months is 45.7%. So this is the -- snapshot is bullet point one is that income is growing at 18% rate of the bank. Cost shows a little bit of higher growth, but I explained where the costs are happening. But end of the day, cost and income, the ratio is 45.7%, one of the best ratios in the country. Another good thing is that we have, as I said, additional provision, we have kept a certain number of additional provisions, certain good amount against certain -- earmarked against certain loan accounts. This is one. Another thing is that the growth of our efficient management of tax that overall has translated into 72% growth in after-tax profit for the first 6 months. So this is one yield and cost of deposit and NIM and the overall top P&L lines that I have mentioned. Now question comes is how much you're earning from loan and how much you're earning from investment income because there's been a lot of media chats and media newses in the market after City Bank's 72% growth in PAT. Market got -- did some misreporting, which I would like to correct here. This is the right forum. You all are honored investors, honorable investors of the bank. Simple figure is that we brought in a lot of deposits last year, a lot of deposits because we needed to run this big machine in an efficient way. So total deposit growth of the bank, just a second. Total deposit of the bank grew around 16%, around 16% first -- last year's first 6 months and this year first 6 months. $80 million net deposit came in. And loan grew $34 million. So what do I do with the extra deposit? We are a popular brand. In Bangladesh, there are only 5, 6, 7 good banks people really trust and City is one of the top 1 or 2 or 3 maximum. So what do we do with the extra $1 million, extra around $40 million or so. So -- and plus, we have also bonds and borrowings and other capital around BDT 15,000 crores. So that we invested in the treasury bill bonds. Our investment in treasury bill bonds also grew by around $77 million. So this is -- so if you take it against the deposit, deposit grew by $80 million, treasury bill investment grew by $878 million and the loan grew 8.4%. So treasury bill bond investment grew 46%. Mahbub mentioned it. But loan didn't grow at that rate. Loan grew at 8.4% only. So this is effective management of balance sheet when there is that kind of instrument available. What is happening is when media is showing the City Bank's earning profile as is shown in the balance sheet and the P&L statement, certain thing is not shown there, like what is your total loan interest income? What is your total investment income, net basis and what is your fee commission income. That figure I'm giving you now. Normally, what happens is that investment income that you have earned against that, there are 2 costs. You needed to bring the deposit. So there is an interest income related expenses on the deposit. Plus also with that investment being made, you are going to the repo window and taking repo at the rate of 10%. So there is a repo cost also. So this, if you deduct from the gross investment income, then you get the net picture. And then you look at the net picture, you see that loan net interest has grown by 3.04%. Investment income has actually grown net by BDT 852 crores, which is 31%, not the 72%. I think I'm confusing a little. If you go without digging deep into it, looking at the balance sheet, you see that investment income, City Bank has earned total income, 72% is investment income. That's wrong. Total income is 31.7% is from investment income. Total income has also -- last year, first 6 months, we had loan interest income, BDT 1,321 crores. We have this year, BDT 1,282 crores. We have earned from loan interest. Our investment income was BDT 524 crores last year. This year is BDT 852 crores actually because you need to deduct the costs against this earning. And your fee commission income was last year BDT 446 crores. This year is BDT 545 crores. It has grown by BDT 22 crores. So I mean to say that total income of the bank from BDT 2,291 crores, it has gone to BDT 2,680 crores. So total income of the bank has grown. Total income of the bank is growing. And this is actually a growth of total income has grown by, correct? BDT 2,291 crores and BDT 2,680, yes. Total income has grown by 18%, 17.6%. So there is no scope to misinterpret the bank's earning from investment income. Whenever you are calculating the earning, you are forgetting -- generally, the media is forgetting that behind that earning, there is a huge interest expense. We needed to bring that deposit, extra deposit. I gave you the figures, $80 million deposit growth, but loan grew by only $34 million. So -- but still, we kept on taking the deposit because there is a good earning potential in that because credit growth is not really in my hand. That's a macroeconomic issue. Industry credit growth is hovering around 3% to 4%. I'm happy that City Bank grew at 8.4%. Because of the high growth, as our CFO said, in the digital and loan, in small and microfinance lending and in retail lending, there has been good credit growth. And I cannot force fit the credit growth. Those loans will go bad. Asif is here, our DMD Wholesale Banking. If the demand for large LCs and factories set up and BMRE and mills and factories are not there, we don't want to unrealistically kind of force fit the customers to take money. We are growing in certain segments where the NPL ratio is much lower. And we believe that the growth overall quantum is lower. It's not that big, but this growth are very meaningful if you look at the long-term picture of the bank. If I now almost -- I'm almost at the end of my talk. If I close it, if you look at the long-term angle of the bank, how we are trying to fortify ourselves against the oncoming risks and how we are building the institution, not only a good bank. Number one is look at the CRAR. Capital adequacy ratio over the last -- Tier 1 capital was only 7.2%. Today, it is 11% in Tier 1. And total capital 5, 6 years ago was 12.2% adequacy ratio. Today, we command an adequacy ratio of 16.1%. This is one. Another long-term great thing for City Bank, I would like to say is that provision coverage ratio. 6 years ago, it was 72.7% meaning against 100 NPL, how much provision you have kept. Earlier, it was 72.7%. And today, it is 132.8%. So this is another second great thing. And the third great thing is the NPL ratio. It was 5.3%. And today, it is 2.8% NPL ratio. So these are the 3 things, plus fourth is our ability to earn that kind of net interest margin. Plus fifth thing is that our ability to contain our cost, which was around 60% cost income, and we have been able to contain it within 40% to 45% range. These 5 things are there, and these things are temporary. Our earnings super high through investment income. What is wrong in that? When the loan growth is so slow, if customers are depositing by trusting City Bank so much and after bearing the repo cost and the deposit cost, if we are earning in a fully legal way by investing into G-SEC, government securities, this is all good. But as a banker, looking at the future of the industry, I would like to say that I would like to see that growth happening in lending because lending benefits business people, lending benefits the growth of industrial sector growth. So of course, I would like to have that lending. But as long as in Asif's area, that kind of a lending or medium segment, that kind of lending is naturally not happening because due to its being a new government, people are taking time, et cetera, et cetera. Till that time, we would like to grow in where we are actually growing. That is in addition to the growth in the treasury business. That is we are growing into digital nano lending. We are growing in small microfinance and growing retail lending and cards. This is our main growth area. And naturally, in Asif's area and our DMD medium segment, in these 2 areas, growth should not be pushed. We should be taking time, let the growth happen naturally. And as I already mentioned about the risks in future, the risk is this -- spread 4% is a matter of worry. Today, the ABB Association, where I'm the Chairman, we're sitting at Eastern Bank head office at 7:00 to discuss these points. ECL is an issue because we have large rescheduled books. But I couldn't have been happier than what I'm now looking at the first 6 months. All good with 72% after-tax profit growth. I only wish that our subsidiaries will also keep pace with us. They will grow in terms of profitability at the same rate. So overall, this is where I would like to end. If you have any question to ask me, I tried my best to explain the investment income puzzle, which media is carrying newses against Bangladesh's good banks, though all of whom are faced with low credit growth. So there was no other way. This is a large economy of $0.5 trillion, and there are only a few good banks where entire deposit sector is coming to those banks. So we are all earning against a very legal instrument, G-SEC which is the sovereign instrument. So I believe first 6 months has been good. Mahbub has touched upon many other points. Our capital risk ratio is going to get even better. Our trade volume is steady. We would like to reach $10 billion trade this year. And we are almost there. Our asset quality, we have been maintaining in a healthy way. Our ROE, he has mentioned, our return on assets he has mentioned. So I will not like to repeat. I tried my best to cover the areas of risk and the prospects. Prospect for City Bank is since the word has come to my mouth, the prospect is that the way we are growing, we are growing not in a very cost-heavy way. Of course, our smaller microfinance business is quite cost-heavy business, but our net for digital is solving things for us. And we are going to get into AI. I am personally talking to BCG, Boston Consultancy Group. I'm yet to brief the management committee of the bank. On the AI capability of City Bank, we are -- we will be working, and we are now chasing the launch of the digital bank. We have already spent a lot. So -- and our country's most powerful Internet banking app is Citytouch. We can claim that very confidently. So that has been relaunched. People are happy. This is an AI-powered Internet banking. So retail bank is doing phenomenally well in this bank and also small microfinance and digital lending is going great. And as I said, that wholesale bank, corporate and medium, they are focusing on trade earnings, and they are focusing on nurturing existing clients. And also whenever any blue-chip company are approaching us, they are also trying to push that. Plus Asif, our Head of Wholesale Bank, whom you see on this screen is also chasing the growth in the China business. China itself is something big in Bangladesh. Japan also is big in Bangladesh. So a lot of business happening in that sector, and we are in the process of launching China Desk. And our Hong Kong business has been now -- Hong Kong subsidiary is now effectively reporting to corporate banking to get the full benefit. So these are the great things happening. Overall, we are all compliant institution, audit-wise, regulatory-wise. So I see that this year will be great. let's face the challenges of next year when time comes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Big thanks to our MD, Managing Director and CEO for such an informative speech. I'm sure it was of great help to our investment community. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on to our Q&A session. The first question is what is management's CASA target for the end of 2026? And where is the incremental deposit growth currently coming from the corporate, retail or SME?

I can give the snapshot. Main deposit is coming from retail segment. Our retail -- as I mentioned in my presentation that the retail contribution is increasing in our portfolio. You have seen that which was 61% -- 60% last year, this year, retail is contributing 63%. On the other hand, CASA contribution is around 42%. We are targeting to achieve 45% this year. But in future, the contribution will increase much more when actually we'll have other technological change, then it will improve drastically.