Indian Bank ($INDIANB)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you all to Indian Bank's Post Results Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter of Financial Year 2026, posted by MK Global. From the top management we have with us Sri Binod Kumar-ji, MD and CEO; Sri Ashutosh Choudhury, Executive Director; Sri Shiv Bajrang Singh, Executive Director; Sri Brajesh Kumar Singh, Executive Director; and Ms. Mini T.M., Executive Director. My first I would request MD sir to briefly summarize the key highlights from the fourth quarter FY '26 results. and also provide strategic direction on growth, margins and asset quality for FY 27, post which we will have a Q&A session. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Anne. My colleague on board, Mr. Ashutosh, Mr. SB Swing, Madame, T.M Mini. And 1 correct sir, Mr. Brajesh Kumar Singh is not here, is or some other things. And dear investors and analysts, thank you for sparing on time and coming to the call of Indian bank. So if I summarize result I think it has been a decent year, almost all parameters, except as to income ratio. We have done better than our guidance. Total business has grown by 12.79%, and total deposit by 12.9%. Advance has grown by 13.43%. CASA, which has been with the challenge. CASA Steel, we have grown by 10.8%. And after a deep in June and consistently all 3 quarters, my CASA share has gone up in September, it was 13.87% then 39.08%, then 39.67%. So CASA, we have been able to maintain almost. Give guidance of 40%, so 39.67%, almost we have maintained. We remain very cautious in raising bulk deposits. Of course, we have to, but we remain very cautious in raising bulk deposit. Advance has grown by 13.43% and primarily contributed by ramp sector, ramp has grown by at 15.28%. And corporate has grown corporate last year, if you see my growth was only 3%. This year, corporate also has grown by 19%. . And within the ramp, it is converted primarily by retail, which is 18.72% and MSME, which is 16.39%. We have sanction around INR 6 lakh loan and INR 48,000 crores to MSME sector. [indiscernible] loan remain our strength area. So [indiscernible] also has grown very -- at a very decent pace of almost 28%, and up to INR 1.27 trillion. Coming to the efficiency parameter. Efficiency parameter, net profit has reached for the quarter INR 3,103 with a sequential growth of 1.3%. And for the year, INR 10,918 to INR 12,156 with a growth of 11.3%. Operating profit has judged INR 5,286 or with Q-o-Q growth of 5.21%. If I talk of annually, it has gone from INR 18,990 to INR 19,916 with a growth of 4.8%. NII also we have INR 7,190 has touched with a sequential growth of 3.09%. If I talk of annually, with a growth of 6.91% and has reached INR 2,915. Other income, we have seen marginal decline sequentially. Y-o-Y, it's 8.32% growth, primarily because of the impact on the treasury income. NIM, if you see for the quarter, it was 3.23%. But if you see annually, it has gone from INR 31.31 to INR 3.42, so 17 basis point decline. And we have given guidance of between INR 3.15 to INR 2.30. So we have maintained that. RORO for the quarter, it Q4, it was 1.28%. But if you see annually in March, it was 1.32 and March 26, we ended at 1.31%. So only 1 basis point decline in that. Return on assets for the quarter, 8.9%, but for the year, 19.3%. Then post the cost-to-income ratio, of course, cost-to-income ratio where we have [indiscernible] but actually, we ended up up for the year, it is 46.03, [indiscernible] but we have taken post-correction.and cost-to-income ratio has come down from INR 46.93 the main to 44.9% in March 25. Resin coverage ratio is constant at 98.8%. We are maintaining since December, also March also for the year also, it is same. Credit cost annualized for the quarter, 0.47, annualize at 0.31%. Then asset quality, asset quality, It has -- gross NPA has come down from 3.09% to 1.9% with a reduction of 111 basis points, NPA from 0.1 to 0.15. Slippage ratio for the quarter, it is 0.96. But if you talk of annualize, it 0.85, which has come down from 1.1. Recovery for the quarter, it was INR 1,499 crores but for the year, is INR 6,651 crores, we have given guidance of between INR 5,500 crore to INR 6,500. SMA.Yes, of course, I would like to highlight. So I will start from March 24. March 24, my SMA was 15.59%, which came down to 18.06% in March 25, and now it is 4.73%. So good work has been done by the department on SMA front. And SMA, if I talk of more than 2 -- more than INR 5 crores, it is INR 922 crores only. We have made some provision, although we are not seeing any stress because of wastes crisis, but we have made a provision of around INR 310 crores in the -- keeping this crisis in view, but as I told in the SME data, we are not seeing any stress. This is purely -- prudently, we have made so that in case something happens, then we will have some. Then during the year, we have 4 lakh, 36,000 taken all together, retail, agriculture, MSME, corporate with a growth of 62%. 62% growth there is in the. Our corporate also, we have sanctioned around INR 1.31 trillion. So corporate also around 62% growth we have seen, maximum growth is in MSME at 81%. We have a pipeline of INR 51,000 crores. And not much of stress we have -- because personal loans, we don't have much only 6,500. MFI also not much 3,300. In corporate, last year, around INR 8,000 crores exposure in NBFC, it has come down by around INR 8,000 crores or out of that NBFC exposure in AAA, WA and A, it is around 99%. So majority of that is in AAA category. Coming to the guidance, we are giving deposit guidance of between 9% to 11% advanced growth of between 11% to 13%. CASA approximately, we will maintain around 40% CDR gross NPA between 1.50% to 1.60% net NPA at the same level, I mean, less than 0.25%, you can say. Recovery, of course, as our pool is coming down. So going forward, this year also, if you see from last year to this year, it has come down by around INR 1,000 crores. It was INR 7,600, which has come down to INR 6,600 crores. So giving guidance of between recovery between INR 4,500 to INR 5,500 crore. AUC recovery last year also was good. We have given guidance of 2,000 and actually, we spared we are giving guidance of recovery in return of book between INR 1,200 to INR 1,500 crore. NIM guidance also, see, I don't see further rate cut, but cost of deposit, I expect that it will remain elevated because of advanced growth is outpacing deposit growth. So I see some pressure on the NIM. So that's why I'm giving guidance between 3.10% to 3.25%. ROA also I'm giving some guidance between 1.20 to 1.30. Credit cost, we will maintain less than 1 slippage resi we'll maintain less than 1. So broadly, these are the things. And apart from that, we have taken some initiatives -- like I told in CASA, we have taken some initiative because of that, we have been able to maintain CASA almost mention CASA. Various products we have launched 2 products. Really, we have some seen good traction. We are analyzing why other products have not taken off. So in that line, we have launched and [indiscernible] for 1 because [indiscernible], we have seen good recon. So we have launched [indiscernible] for women. And in the gig Champion, 4 gigawatts, we have launched a new product. So hopefully, we will see some traction in coming quarters. And very recently, we have launched -- in operative account, we have around 3,400,000 inoperative account, we have made them operative, and that has resulted in a total balance of around INR 4,000 crores. Similarly, we are focusing on QR code and cost machine at set because float, I believe this is nobody know that is financial literacy is improving and there is a structural shift. People are becoming investors becoming investors in set of sever.So we have to rely on float. And salary account, we have added around more than 300,000 salary account we have added during the during the quarter. Average balance, I would like to highlight average balance, if I see average balance sheet saving fund normal account, I'm saying ex BSBD account. It has gone up from 30,000, which was last year to 46,000. Similarly, in current account average balance has gone up from 1.8 lakh to INR 2.4 lakhs. So we are focused on the strengthening of the relationship depending of the relationship. Of course, 2 challenge, I will say, for this year. Growth, I believe country government and RBI, as you must be seeing in the nichepaper also, they will take all measures to sustain the growth, GDP growth. So if GDP growth is intact, I believe credit growth will also be intact. If there is some headwind on the GDP growth, of course, the impact will come on us. But 2 immediate challenge I see is the recovery of course, INR 1,000 crores already, it has gone down. And this year, treasury profit may not be to the extent it was last year. But there are also some good news. We have not booked very high profit in the treasury. That means we have not sold some good yielding security. So that may help us in passing through this page. Now I will request Mr. Ashutosh, to highlight about the digital initiative what we have taken during the year.

Thank you, sir. Good evening, all. The digital business of the bank for financial year 2526 has grown by 63% and reached INR 27,000 crores. The mobile banking customers has increased to INR 236 crores. The BES has increased, and the mobile banking transition has shown a healthy growth of 15% that is 65.8 lakhs per month, the transaction is happening there. The digital adoption rate in retail and agri has reached to 97%. That means the loan the retail and agri loan that has been sanctioned, that is 97% through digital channel. The bank is implementing 10-plus AI and genic AI-related platforms with the help of almost more than 160 fintech partners. One are talked about the CASA, let me say, last year, we introduced a segment of customers. Those who have not visited the brands over quite some time. We have classified them. That particular category of customers are almost increasing, and it has reached to 2,200,000, and the best identified to move some more customer that wastes almost INR 1 crore plus. So in the digital aspect, we have done that. And this year, we have introduced a CRM platform. The CRM platform that we introduced is for retail. Now we are going to introduce for corporate, and in that platform, the model also will enable service request and sales management. So this will not only deepen the existing relationship with existing customers, but also it will give a boost to acquire new customer build on this sales management. Now I would like to tell a couple of things that we have done during this particular financial year. We have digital the corporate credit. The journey is almost complete. And we are taking 1 step forward in our corporate credit journey that I will discuss with all of you. We have a partnership with as aggregators where we can provide [indiscernible] customers of other banks. Then we also introduced a new corporate website. We are sending our UPI app in UPI. The updated version will be introduced this financial year. We have introduced EFRM solutions that is a real-time AI-driven behavioral analysis platform, which will help in curbing the digital floors as well as money mill account we have introduced in Optima. That is our cash management services, where almost 150-plus corporate customer has been onboarded. So in the pipeline, I would like to also highlight some of the things. We are introducing a corporate ecosystem and which will help our relationship managers while negotiating with the customers, we are also planning to introduce an RFP creator because we produced a lot of RFP for onboarding IT and non-IT vendors. We are also in the process of introducing invoice processing that will -- this will automate the received validation approval and payment of invoices. In CRM platform, we are introducing lead nurturing management. We are introducing an intelligent document. This will help in our documents post sanctions. When you go for documentation, this will check legality of that particular document. So also with this FRM solution, this suspicious transaction reporting that we are planning to automate. Along with this, with our news and contact center, we are automating the [indiscernible] redeal mechanism, which will reduce the tax and improve the customer experience.

[Operator Instructions] First question we'll take from Ajmera.

And congratulations for yet another good quarter. as you and shelfed also said, and I can see also that you have surpassed on almost every front, except 1 or 2 on the guidance. So that is commitment and not only touched or this thing, but like in case of the credit also, the growth is very good, 13.43%. Even in the deposit also in spite of the various challenges, you have done very well, 12.2%. And ACA recovery in the entire year, a very good INR 2,508 crores, of course, next year, the target you have reduced a bit and then that. So my compliments on that, sir. So my first question, other, I would like to seek your views and comments on this ECL guidelines, now they have been finalized now, and RBI has declared the final guidelines which we were waiting for quite some time. And many of the banks had already started preparing for that and making some extra additional provisions also. So in our case, in our bank, how is the preparedness how much total going to the hit we are going to get? And whatever time has been given, I think, up to 31st March 2030 or some people are saying '31, How are we prepared to take care of this extra provisioning. So just my first -- even though though you are saying that even in this quarter also, you have made INR 310 crores extra provision on the standard asset to take care of any eventuality. But that is on the geopolitical situation in West Asia war. So can I have your views on this, sir?

Yes. So before -- thank you. So before coming to that, this quarter also we have sold IP of around INR 6,000 crores . And we have opened 102 branches against we have a target of opening around 300 branches in 3 years. So we are on track of that. . So coming to your question to the EC guidelines . Guidelines [Foreign Language] yesterday. And a few things they have added. So whatever we have calculated in the draft guidelines, I think, impact will be a little higher than that. However, we are in process like guidelines has come only a study. We are in the process of calculating which I think in a weak or because see, I can give. Some number, but that will not be very relevant because ultimately, next meeting, we will you have told this number. Now you are seeing this number. So I don't want to create that situation. . We'll give you concrete numbers so that variation is minimum. But having said that, let me assure you, all of you, that impact is not going to be very huge, because we -- as all of you know, we have been preparing in different ways, not only in name of ECL, but we have been preparing in different ways. And -- so we -- since last 5 years, we have been going through a very good hedge, I will say, benign asset quality phase. So I don't see much of the impact in the -- I mean, overall impact and as I told in earlier call, that we will be able to absorb all the impact in 1 year. Now I'm saying now we will be able to absorb all the impact in, say, 6 to 9 months. Maybe go between 1 to 3 quarter maybe, that I mean broad, you can see.

Okay. Sir, quite well taken, sir. Sir, my another observation is on the slippage in this quarter, which has increased to INR 1,355 crores as against about INR 1,000 crores in the last quarter, and going forward with this kind of situation prevailing geopolitical which impact might not have seen much in March. But in this quarter, in the coming April, May, June, we might have some impact on that, and you also covered a little bit on this. So where do you see the -- I mean, first of all, do you see that it will make a major impact if they are I mean, goes on -- I mean there's total uncertainty on that. So -- and how much impact do you see? And from where it can come negatively, and how are we prepared to take care of that. So that is my another. If you can just elaborate on that. And coupled with that, the SME numbers has drastically has come down, SMA from INR 49 crores to INR 922 crores and SMA 1 has gone just little bit INR 700 crores only higher. So whether going forward, both these questions are couple days. I mean, it's basically corrected to each other.

Yes, so first of all, if you see from the March December, it has gone up slippage. But that is a very you see every annual March, there will be around INR 400 crores to INR 500 crores MOC. So this number has gone up basically on account of MOC. That was also in last March also, there was around INR 500 crores MoCA this quarter also around INR 400 crore MOC. So this March is always we have some MOC because that because that slippage ratio will be higher. Thereafter that, 1 thing I can assure you during the financial year. This number -- of course, I mean there's something very -- I mean, something drastic happens, then I cannot say. But in normal situation, this number slippage ratio will be better in all the quarters. except March, again, there will be some MOC. So every quarter, you can assume that this slippage number will be less than that, number one, number two, come into SMA. So SMA reduction, I will not take any brandy fine because 2 government accounts are there, so that is not in SMA2, that's why number has come down. So no 1 point for that. SMA-1 increase has come because 1 account out of that is in SMA1.So SMA-1 has a little bit increased. But if you see SME, total SMA has really gone down from last year INR 45,000 crores the INR 46,000 crores it is INR 31,000 crores. So SMA number overall has come down. See, stress, if you talk of the stress, stress is not only from the war. Stress is already from the tariff point. That means from August, you can say that there is some risk in the system. I have believed in the resilience of the banking system and resilience of our economy, and you must be seeing various positive response from all the governor and various ministers that whatever required, they will try to maintain the economic growth rate. So if economic growth is maintained, I think the government will take some measure. And because of that, I'm not seeing much impact on the asset quality also. And if at all, because already it is around 4, 5 months -- around 7 months. If you take from again 4 on 37 months, almost 7 months. then almost it should have started some incipient increase in SMA, so which we are not seeing. So hopefully, we will tie this time also without impacted much.

Sir, now on the treasury also, you touched on the hiring front in this quarter also, it has taken all the loss on the sale of the investment I mean, the INR 105 crore and then profit. INR 99 crores minus the protein treasuries had a pressure on this as far as this quarter, even in the last quarter also, it was there a little bit. So -- but you also said at the same time that going forward, we -- since we have the higher value, higher yield, lower yield, higher income investments in our book. So in this coming -- in this current quarter, how do you see the treasury performing going forward? .

No, of course, there will be impact on the treasury, no denying. But in fact, only limited my point is impact will not be very severe because we have not seen. If we have sold all the securities and has raised securities with the lower is that my impact would have been higher. But since we have not sold, so impact, we'll be there, of course, but the impact will not be as I mean as severe. And still, I expect that around -- for the year, I'm saying maybe around 1,200 profit will earn through treasury.

So your digital front, you performed exceedingly well. In fact, there's a lot of advancement. And Ashutosh is, as usual, has explained very much in detail about the digital advancement of the bank. But in the real term, whenever these journeys are completed and these digital products are put to the use, are we assessing the actual impact of the digital introduction or -- apart from the surveillance and other things, we doesn't directly produce anything. Are we seeing any commercial like benefits? Is there any study done on that? And like vis-a-vis the kind of investment which you are making, every bank is making huge investment on this. But have we started measuring it on the impact on the revenue on the positive side and how much of it -- is that the process has been put into the practice, sir?

See very, very pertinent point as because I have also been saying that we are spending is in -- but benefit of that, to the extent we desire is yet to come. That will happen as our digital, you say what we say, adoption, not only adoption risk, people actually start using digital channel. Like, for example, is still, of course. If you -- are we getting benefit, we are getting benefit. Like our 94% transaction are through digital channel. So if they visit the branch cost will be at least 5 weeks higher. If a customer visit branch cost will be at least 5x higher, plus we will have to keep more imply. So we are taking benefit, if not directly, indirect, we are taking benefit of that. And as rate of this adoption will increase. Just 1 day time sharing. Say digital FD people come to a branch bank for making FD. So we have just tried to push that why people are coming to the branch. There are certain set of people, they will definitely come. So we don't discourage them. But those who can do transaction on their own, we are encouraging them to do transaction on their own. So as when they will do transaction on their own upwards, that will be cost saving to us.

And what a coincidence around this, I was sitting with a client in the just a little before the afternoon only. And of course, that is a private bank. So were having INR 1 crore only in the current account, it's a small SME kind of a client. So I said, why don't you stagger it and put it in the FD. You know that banker -- that person came within 15, 20 minutes, they had some visit. And on this pot online, he made 3 FD of INR 20, INR 25 lakh for different duration of 91 days to 271 on this spot, within 5 minutes, the ups were made. I mean, on the system only has seen. Of course, effect by positive, whether it would have been in the current account, it would have benefited more for 3 days to the bank. Like that's a different thing. But ease of doing us and these things are going to be. The only thing many of the bankers are talking about if the time has not come when we start putting? I mean using some tools, putting some measurement that that the profit or the advantage can become measurable.

We will try to. It is in the backdrop of the mind, but a quantification. So 1 major that I run in my mind, I just share with you that, so if you see manpower of the banks has remained constant over the last 5 years. But if you see business of bank has grown by double or in few cases, we have more than double. So of course, the benefit we are driving. It's not that benefit, we are not driving. Only thing it is not quantified on paper. We'll definitely try to do that.

You have become almost INR 15 lakh crore business bank, just shying away with INR 500 or INR 6,000 crores only. So anyway, sir, complements to you are the best to you. And if time permits, I might come again. .

We'll have a question from Akshay Badani.

My question was around the lines of -- as you indicated, cost of funds will be going up currently also, it's going up. So what levers do we have on the asset side where we could offset this or if there are certain set of segments where we can price our loans better going forward?

If you ask me very frankly, very few levers are left because see, almost 50% of loan book is linked to external benchmark. You have hardly any lever on that. Only then that only area remains loan linked to MCLR. So as cost of because their cost of fund is in build also. So only level, that is the only lever, but MCL also formula driven. You cannot do much. Then only 1 thing remains, we take benefit of IT and try to, I mean, at least maintain CASA here. if not increase because CASA that will be the only thing because see, bulk rate is very high. You cannot do anything with that. Since bulk rate is high, retail term deposit rate, we cannot reduce anything. So that is only that remains and asset quality. Asset quality, we have to ensure that asset quality remains very good. Otherwise, NIM is also not there and there is on the asset quality, then of course, there will be tough time.

So just then coming to asset quality. Since our exposure overall in loan mix to agri and MSME sectors is high. although we have created extra provision buffer this quarter, how would you envisage the situation, especially in both the segments, which could be vulnerable going forward given the, if there could be inflationary pressure going forward?

See, agree, we don't have much challenge because a majority of my agri book is from [indiscernible]. So I agree, we don't see any challenge. Of course, MSME if some stress come, which is -- if industry is impacted, I will also be impacted. But as I told, I think government will also do something if something happens, then government will do also something. And at least as of now, it is not reflected, as I told. Otherwise, something must have -- I mean it started inching up, at least in SMA, not NPA than SMA, it must have started inching up. So far, I have not seen and believe we will pass through this phase without being impacted much.

Next question we'll take from Jai.

Sir, if you can quantify that you've said that the SMA is 1,000 or if you have the number for SMA-0, 1 and 2 separately? .

Yes. Thank you, Jai. So total SMA, INR 31,000. Out of that SMA 0 is almost INR 16,000. SMA-1 is INR 9,000 SMA 2 is INR 6,000. .

Okay, sure. So sir, I think, okay. So SMA 0 only has gone up. But if I compare versus last quarter and 1 and 2, they have reduced, okay, 1 is similar and 2 has reduced -- and Secondly, sir, on your growth. So last year, at the beginning of the quarter, we also said 10%, 11% kind of growth. But we did -- if I look at this year, we ended at around 15% kind of a growth. You have excellent asset quality is less than 80% LDR. What is the realistic growth number that we should assess because, sir, 10%, 11%, 12% is actually lower than the industry. So are you okay with the growing lesser than industry or you want to be at let similar to industry?

So this year also industry growth at 16%. So I'm okay with a little bit of -- I mean even if a little bit slower than the industry without compromising on the asset quality and NIM, so my focus is, of course, growth, but NIM and asset qualities would also remain intact. But 1 thing why I'm giving guidance of 11% to 13% in advance. Let me tell you, around 16% to 17% of my book is dual loan. And last year, [indiscernible], because of the increase price, we have seen good number. So maybe similar kind of growth, we may not see in [indiscernible] this year. that's why I'm giving guidance of between 11% to 13%.

Understood. Understood. And sir, the retail term deposit, that should continue to improve, right? I mean, as of now, even if the repricing bulk of the repricing is over, but still the cost of deposit will keep reducing only, right? Is that the understanding right or not?

No. I see retail term deposit also, we are not able to reduce any rate of interest on that. because bulk is at elevated levels, then you cannot give a very wide gap between retail term deposit and bulk. So because of that, even retail term deposit will remain at this level. or maybe a few of the banks you have noticed in March, a few of the banks have increased retail term deposit rates. You're right.

Sure. And sir, if you can quantify your AFS reserve, how much was -- how much is the AFS reserve as end of the quarter and maybe quarter 3. So just to understand how much was the win?

Yes, yes, yes. Yes, swings, December quarter is 4,000 plus. March quarter, it was minus -- it is minus INR 200. .

Okay. So around INR 42,00 crores swing, right? .

Sorry, INR 400. So INR 400 to minus INR 200.

Right, right. And sir, total gold loan book, sir, we have given the retail gold, but how much will be the agri gold and MSME gold put together if you have the number

INR 1.27 lakh crores Right.

Next question will take from Parth Gupta.

Sir, my question is on the overseas advances. Last couple of quarters, we are seeing we are seeing phenomenal growth in this segment. Can you just elaborate on the same -- which part of the -- as this relating to with sector and from which regions? Yes. .

We have only 2 branches. Sirlanka, hardly anything, only Gift City and Singapore. So we are participating basically in the syndicated loan, and some trade finance . I mean, not any sectoral-specific but we are participating in syndicated loans from different sectors, it are not any specific sector. .

Okay. Okay, sir. And the next 1 is what is the proportion of bulk deposits within the overall deposits? .

Bulk and CD taken together around 18% to 19%.

Okay. And what is the internal threshold .

We have not kept internal threshold as such. But we will like to maintain in this range only, I mean, less than 20.

Next question will take from an and we'll take the question from [indiscernible]. We'll take our next question from Jayant Kharote question.

First question is on asset quality. If you can help us quantify what is the total outstanding floating provisions that you hold on your book, contingent or floating? And then a follow-up to that is the requirement. I know you said that the number could be higher. But if you could help us, what was the initial assessment at least in the site. Why I'm getting slightly confused is you had the number may be higher, but then you said we will do it in 3 quarters and -- so is this about the steady-state impact? Or is it about the onetime impact? If you can just sort of these 3 clarifications.

So in NPA, in fact, we are not holding any floating provision. LPA, whatever account we are making only a specific account-wise provision. Number one. Number two, see while I told it is number is higher, when we make assessment of the ECL guidelines, there were certain things we have taken up with RBI. Based on that, we have made various scenarios. . So keeping this scenario in view, I have told that maybe we may need 1 year time. But now that final guidelines has come and now we -- with -- I mean, almost a certainty, we can say, of course, the number we are calculating. And why there is some impact because HTM book earlier, it was not part of the tough guidelines. Now HTM book has come that's why impact will go up. But overall impact, what we are seeing, say, worst case scenario, so from worst case scenario, now it has improved. That's why I'm saying it will go up, but overall yearly overall impact will be less as compared to cost case scenario.

You've also done some accelerated provisions this quarter, right, related to the West Asia. So including that, what is the total provisions that you hold outside your PCR.

They don't tell even me. My CFO is very hard not. He does not disclose to me also.

But you would have some idea because it will be needed in our ECL to offset our ECL impact, right?

They are giving only the impact that to exact they have not given so far. So we are working on that, let us see. So how much of this quarter, at least can you call out of the provisioning this quarter was linked to NPA provisions and other PC NPA will not help much. So we have around this quarter, around INR 500-odd crores, we have made in the standard.

Great, sir. Sir, second question was regarding LCR. If you could help us give your average LCR number. And Again, how has that been trending? And I have a follow-up. Yes, LCR, we are comfortable. Throughout the year, we are comfortable -- and because of the implementation of this new guidelines from first half report, there is a benefit of 4 to 5 basis points. So where are you right now in here, yes?

LCI 127. We are at INR 123 crores, INR 124.

So then just to add, if you are sitting at 127 and you will have more to 500 leased. Why is that at such a high LCR when you are paying such high cost for deposits? Why not operate at INR 115, 120, it will help your NIMs.

Without taking NIM of the bank, 1 bank had to raise very huge sum at very high cost. So I don't want to create that situation when everybody panics -- so a little a.

What is a fair number that every bank should operate at?

I think around 150 to 120 you should have. going below 150, I mean say, one, some event may entirely impact. And let me tell you, we are not making special -- I mean, efforts for maintaining LCR Whatever we have access in the SLR, that is contributing to maintaining of the SLR. So it's not like specifically for this purpose, we are purchasing ECL.

So basically, that's where you are also not guiding for very high trading profit because you want to enjoy that on both on NIM side as well as LCR side, benefits of that bond. Great I think that is a good stated strategy. Thanks. Thanks, and have a -- thank you. All the best for the next.

Last question, we'll take from Ashlesh.

Sir, 2 questions from side. First 1 is our comment you made prefer to prioritize maintaining margin and asset quality over just growth. Good to hear that. But sir, if I have to paint a scenario where over the next year, cost of deposit goes continues to inch up from this level, let's say, by 20 or 30 basis points. How would you, in that scenario, maintain your margins? Levers would you have at your disposal? That is one. Secondly, you made the statement about ACL that you will potentially be able to absorb it over a period of 1 to 3 quarters. Does that mean that the ECL shortfall onetime number will be somewhere between 1 to 3x your quarterly, is that the understanding? .

That's good. I miss you can make inference, but that is a huge number gap. 1 to 3 quarters is a huge gap. So I have a C, of course, as I told you, if cost of deposits keep on inching, so part of that will be offset by increasing cost of deposit is also part of the MCLR. So part of that, of course, MCLR will also increase -- start increasing. So then that will help.

Anything you can do on the asset side? What will change the mix further towards metering assets or high pricing? .

See, asset side, I really -- I mean, I don't see much of the scope because in corporate definitely not. Something can be done in the segment, mid-segment, you can say between, and again, retail MSME is linked to your EV there also, you cannot increase is[indiscernible] that book is also tied up. Only thing remains some corporates between mid-segment corporation. That's why we are focusing on mid-segment corporates between INR 50 crores or INR 100 crores to INR 500 crores. There, we can command a little better price as compared to the corporates or retail and MSME. And that area remains my focus area. .

Understood, sir. And second one, on the ACL thing. Just trying to understand the statement which you have made when you say we'll be able to absorb it in 1 to 3 quarter.

But that is used a wide range. Let us see. I will come up. I will give numbers very shortly. It's not like that we have some assessment, but I don't want to give any number and then come back and say that, no, no, it has gone up or it has substantially come down. either it is not right. If you give -- if I give you a number, and that number go up, it is not right for anybody. And either way also, if I give a number and then you come down substantially, that is also not right. That's fair which is too early on da , it has come. .

Understood, sir. Sir, and just lastly, if I can squeeze in 1 more. given that bond yields have increased over the past few months, does that mean that your provisions for AS 15 can decline materially over FY '27. .

I expect. Materially means -- I mean, per quarter, if you are mating making, say, INR 800 to maybe INR 100 crores, you can say we can save.

Yes. Sir, 1 question which has come in the chat box. Again, it is related to ECL only. Is that earlier, basically, you had said that about 1% to 1.5% will be the impact on the capital in terms of ECL. Now it would have gone up or down whatever like you've made with the calculation. But does it mean that in FY '27 itself, you will absorb the EC impact through P&L, and you will not need any impact to be taken on the first April 2027 through net worth? What it means?

No, 1% to 5% I have told actually will absorb in 1 year. That is what I have told impact. So maybe somebody might make inference out of that. But of course, no, of course, some impact will come in next year also because entirely, we cannot make provision in this financial year. although we have 4 quarters, but still we cannot make entire whatever report is there. So some impact will spill over to the next year also.

Okay. And despite assuming -- I mean, absorbing the ECL impact, you're still guiding about 1.2%, 1.3% ROA.

This year Yes.

Sure. So do you expect some one-offs to come through like that you're going to absorb so much of ECL impact this year? .

No. No one-off, normal. This year also despite doing all these things, we have been able to maintain around 1.3. Only challenge that treasury will not be there. So part of that will be compensated by, I mean, NIM decrease. I expect that it will not be as severe as last year. .

Last question we'll take from Sushil Choksey.

Based on current global environment, India may be better off. And Southern states are even better because a lot of manufacturing, GCC even textile has some stability and some other sectors. How is the pipeline visible on various sectors starting from renewable infrastructure, data center, MSME? And what is the unavailed credit as of today. .

So we have around INR 51,000 crores pipeline. Out of that, and unavailed is 34,000, 35,000. That is term loan only. So that is the pipeline.

What sectors are attracting Indian bank to underwrite businesses, sir? .

2, 3 sectors, using. One, green, you see already green or everywhere. Battery also EV also, then the solar power also transmission line also. I think this year, transmission line, we will see a lot of this government -- and then data center, data center also, we are seeing a lot of demand in data center. I think last year, road sector has been a little slow, but we may expect this year some traction in the road sector.

Any color on MSME specifically from Southern region, which led by auto ancillary textile, other manufacturing sectors like whether that reason out? .

I think still just struggling since last -- I mean 1 year before that also textile was not doing very great. And in fact, that has saved many of the textile companies. Since last 2, 3 years, they were not very good. The -- I know many of the company, they have not of the working capital event. You have the company I know who has not availed working capital since their sales is not very good, sir. So leather, we don't have much exposure in leather, so we don't very much on that count. Only a little bit worry we had for the textile, but I think they have -- so far, they have tied guide away .

So being conservative, at the same time being prudent on quality, you are very comfortable where your growth is concerned despite challenges for this year. This is the submission of your...

Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I mean asset quality plus bottom line is also important.

Sir, 1 last question to Asia, what is the digital budget for this year? And as India is transforming. We also need to transform, processes are changing. What is our budget now for coming years on the digital spend?

Let me answer it in a relative manner. Th budget will be more or less equivalent to the human cost, that means the salary and all those things we are paying to our employees. So in that way, you can definitely correlate .

So you will match the human cost in the spend. That's what we almost the employee cost will.

It will be in and around that.

So any signs on brand specifically of some kind of indicated warnings that economy is having some impact. specifically in April .

Not not much of impact we have seen even Otherwise, SMA, it would have started increasing SMA. So not much impact we have seen.

Thank you, Sushilji. We will take that as a last question. With this, we come to the end of Indian Bank's posts conference call for fourth quarter FY '26. I now request the management to give their closing remarks, if you have any.

No, I think all the points have been discussed. The only thing, as I told, we remain very cautious for the bottom line and growth bottom line and asset quality. And growth, we are okay with 1% to 2% less than the industry. So that is okay. This year also, it is around 13.6%. Whereas we could have sold even more because -- for the year, we have sold around 23,000 of IBPC. So we remain cautious of that. And 2 challenges, as I explained earlier, 2 challenges, the CRC recovery and treasury income. So -- but we will be able to maintain whatever guidance we have been given.

Thank you. That's very helpful. On behalf of MK and the management of Indian man. I thank all the participants for joining this evening, and have a good day. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Anand. Thank you all.