Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the UCO Bank Q3FY26 earnings conference call. Today, from the management side, we have with us Mr.

Ashwani Kumar, MD and CEO, Mr. Rajendra Kumar, Executive Director, and Mr.

Vijay Kamble, Executive Director. With this, I hand over the call to MD sir for his opening remarks, post which we'll have a Q&A session.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Let me welcome all our analysts and investors to this post-December results con call.

With me, I have our EDs, Shri Saboo-ji, Shri Kambleji, our Corporate General Managers, CFO, CRO, CGM IT, CGM HR, all are available. Let me wish you all Happy New Year, and now I'll just give you a small brief of the financial performance of the bank, though we have already uploaded the presentation.

I believe that every one of you have gone through. Brief about the results of the bank I would like to share with you all.

Far as business growth is concerned, bank's business grew by 13.25% on a YOY basis, which was backed by deposit growth of 10.64% and advances growth of 16.74%. Deposit growth was backed by growth in CASA deposit by 11.49%.

Within CASA, saving grew by around 10% and current grew by 23%. Our CASA ratio improved by 44 bps to 38.41%, and we have been able to maintain our CASA in the ratio of 37 to 38% consistently for last seven-eight quarters.

In advances, the growth of 16.74% was backed by growth in the RAM segment, which improved by 25.86%, and that was backed by growth in retail advances by 24.69%, agriculture by 23.56%, and MSME by 23.56%. In MSME, we have seen that last three, four quarters we are growing more than 20% consistently.

Within retail, housing grew by 19%, vehicle grew by 73%, and RAM share in the overall credit mix works out to be around 66%. Far as capital adequacy of the bank is concerned, capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at around 17.43%, with Tier 1 capital 15.41% and CET1 at 15%.

If we include this nine months profit also, then our capital adequacy ratio stood at 18.67%. CD ratio of the bank has been improving on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

In March 23, it stood at around 65%. Now in December 25, it has reached to 78.56%.

Every quarter there is improvement in our CD ratio. Coming to profitability, operating profit of the bank for this quarter stood at around 1,680 crores, registering a growth of 6% on a YOY basis, and net profit was 739 crores, registering a growth of 15.65%.

During this period, NI, net interest income, grew by 11.25-27% on a YOY basis, and on nine-month basis it grew by 9.38%. Net interest margin improved to 3.08% on the global and domestic stood at 3.27% as against 3.03% global and 3.23% in domestic last quarter.

Our cost of fund also improved by 27 bps, came down to 4.48%. Yield on advances stood at 8.06%.

Cost to income ratio, that is an important parameter, it has again improved to now it has come down to 52.20%. It is a 330 bps reduction on a year-on-year basis.

Return on asset, which is another important parameter, it has improved to 0.83. Last quarter it was 0.71.

Fee-based income also grew by around 30% on a YOY basis, and on nine-month basis it grew by 22.46%. Then coming to asset quality, gross NPA has improved to 2.41% as against 2.91%, that is a 50 bps reduction on a YOY basis.

Net NPA also improved to 2.36% as against 0.63%, that is 27 bps reduction on a YOY basis. PCR improved to 97.32%, and tangible PCR also now stands at 85.47%.

Slippage ratio for the quarter improved to 0.85%. Slippages were mainly from the MSME, retail and agri, and not from the corporate segment.

Total slippages, 419 crores, were from the RAM segment, and that too majority of the slippages were less than 10 lakh rupees accounts. If I have to look at SMA, more than one crore, we always in every quarter declare more than one crore SMA book.

One crore SMA book of the bank, SMA zero, one, two, all three segments put together is only 1,605 crores. That works out to 0.68% of the total book.

If I look at SMA one and two, that is only 848 crores, and that works out to less than 0.5% of the book. Within the SMA book, if I have to look at the corporate SMA, SMA one and two in the corporate segment, it is only 316 crores.

Coming to recovery, recovery during this nine months period, total recovery is 2,215 crores, and against the target which we have given, guidance we have given, 2,200 to 2,700 crores. During these three months, the recovery this quarter was 383 crores, and last quarter it was 366 crores.

That is on the recovery front. Our recovery and upgradation is always in excess of the slippages during the quarter.

If I have to look at the efficiency of the bank, business per employee improved to 26.12 crore in December 25 as against 23 crore in December 24. Similarly, business per branch also improved to 266.32 crore as against 149.74 crore in the last financial year.

As far as some provisions which bank has been carrying, there is a buffer or floating provision, you can say, or you can say that forward-looking provision towards ECL. We have already started making the provision.

This quarter we have made additional provision in the standard book. Now the overall provision which we carry, forward-looking provision, is 1,252 crores, which includes 530 crores of forward-looking provision which we have made earlier years.

Total provision towards ECL today stands at 1,252 crores. As far as LCR is concerned, 112% LCR is maintained by the bank.

These were all about the performance of the bank. Now few of the initiatives which bank started this year and previous year we have already completed those initiatives.

Few of the initiatives bank is now planning in this year also. I'll just highlight a few of them.

Previously we started the digital transformation project Parivartan. Bank has already implemented more than 30 journeys have been made live in retail, agri, MSME, and liability segment as well.

Total 15,900 crore of digital business book has been built by the bank, and out of that more than 2 lakh customers have been given credit through digital means. Through STP journey, 2 lakh customers have been given loans by the bank.

Today, when I speak, more than 50% of our FDs are made digitally, loan against FDs, more than 50% is happening digitally. More than 61% accounts are opened through tab banking digitally, and mobile banking users have also increased four times over last two years.

Now it stands at more than 64 lakh. Bank's mobile app rating continues to be at 4.8, which is one of the best mobile app ratings of the bank.

WhatsApp banking we started last year. Now we have reached, we are giving 47 services through WhatsApp banking, eight regional languages plus Hindi and English.

Total ten languages are there in WhatsApp banking. In almost one, less than one year, 17 lakh customers are now using WhatsApp banking.

In addition to this, CBDC has also been implemented, PMS has been implemented, Learning and Development Center of Excellence has been made. Then new treasury solution, which we were talking last year, that has gone live this quarter.

Then data center consolidation also we talked last year. This last quarter that has also gone live now.

Data center consolidation at Kolkata has happened. Then API gateway also has been implemented.

We have already completed our automation of ALM TPM solution, application performance monitoring system has been implemented, and in order to improve and to gauge the level of customer service and customer resolution, grievance resolution mechanism, we have started a feedback mechanism also, where customers are giving feedback about our services by our staff members. That is also now happening.

Now MuleHunter and i4C integration is also completed. These were the initiatives which we had started and they are all completed now.

What we are planning is omnichannel experience. That omnichannel project is already on way.

In next year it will be completed. Cash management services, then supply chain finance, robotic process automation, forex travel card, CASA back office, DMS, ITM security, cybersecurity.

Then ten more digital journeys are in pipeline in project Parivartan. Then last year we revamped our call center.

Now we are planning to make call center as a profitable center by using call center for the digital services like digital cross-selling of the products and digital journeys also. As far as IT expenditure is concerned, we have kept a budget of more than thousand crore.

Around 700-odd crore has already been now spent. Next quarter will be hopefully we will be completing the digital budget IT budget also.

Thank you very much, and now we are available for your question answers. We are open for that.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. We will start with question and answer session.

Those who have any question, please raise your hand. The first question is from the line of Ashok Ajmera.

You have been unmuted, please go ahead with your question.

Yes, Ajmera ji.

Can you hear me?

Yes, Ajmera ji. Now we can hear you.

Sir, compliments to you, Ashwani sir, Saboo-ji, Kamble-ji, and the entire top management and the entire management of UCO Bank for a fantastic results, even continuously, maintaining good results quarter after quarter, and this quarter is no exception. My compliments to you for the same.

In fact, generally there was a concern on the credit growth in most of these banks, barring some two, three banks, but in your case you have excelled very well on the credit also, 10.73% only in nine months against your whole target of the whole year of 13 to 14%. My, of course on the deposit side in nine months we are only 5.63%.

My first question is, sir, on the credit growth, when you already achieved a handsome growth of almost about 11% in nine months, why don't you just revise the overall year's credit target? Because your CD ratio is still comfortable, good LCR and deposit also, I am sure you will meet the target of 10-11% which has been given.

This is my first question and sir, I need your comments and feedback on this, please.

Thank you, Ajmera ji. Thank you for your compliments, and you see the bank has been consistently showing stable growth in each of the parameters quarter after quarter.

Far as credit growth is concerned, if you look at on a quarterly basis, YOY basis, we are growing more than 15%. On a conservative basis, we always keep our guidance 12 to 14%, because in this current market, though we are growing well in RAM, but in corporate, if you look at our corporate credit growth, there is slight muted growth in the corporate segment.

That is basically because of some pricing issues. If you go deeper into the details, you will find that our PSU exposure has come down by around 6,000 crore.

If you look at our corporate growth, corporate book, 6,000 means around 8 to 9% of exposure, 8 to 9%. Had that been, our corporate credit growth would have been better and our overall credit growth would have been much better.

Looking into all those things, we always keep our guidance within the trend, slightly higher than the trend rather, I will say, because when we look at the economy and the credit growth in the overall system, we don't want to outgrow beyond a reasonable margin. That is the reason we are keeping our growth targets within, but every quarter if you see, we have been surpassing our targets.

We expect that we will be achieving and surpassing that credit growth target also. We'll continue to keep our credit growth target of 12 to 15%, 14%.

Why I said, sir, that because our base is still comparatively small, in the size of near to the, say Bank of Maharashtra and some of the other banks. Here there is a lot of scope and you have got a strong team, strong management, strong balance sheet also.

Your provisioning is almost about 97-98% already there. I think the current underwriting book is also very good, as I see.

Anyway, sir, now coming to this, you have already talked about ECL provisioning of 1,252 crores, but sir, what would be the total quantum of the ECL if you have done some calculation, and whether you are going to complete it in one or two, 27 in 28 only, or you are going to also take the benefit of that five years in that?

See, if you look at our back of the envelope calculation which we have done, it should be in the range of 2,500 to 3,000 crore currently, as per our estimates. Around 50% of that, if I take a lower band of 2,500, 50% of that we have already built in, right?

I expect now we have still five, six quarters rather, because in June 27 we have to go live with that, right? We have six quarters.

This quarter we have also again built around 200-odd crore towards ECL. Going by this trend, if profitability supports, everything supports, I believe we should be near to our requirement by the time it is implemented.

We should be near to. If at all not, then probably within one year, I think we should be in a position to achieve what is required to be achieved.

I don't think that bank will need longer period of five years' time which is required, which is permitted, because we have already started building and expect that by June we should be near to the numbers required.

Sir, my second question is on the impact of this labor code, new labor code. Have you calculated?

Because I don't find in this quarter any hit has been taken. Rather, I think if you look at the employee cost, which is lesser than the last quarter.

How much impact do you see? Is it significant, or it's a small impact, which you are in the normal course going to pass on it?

It's very insignificant, because we have a very small number of contractual employees. We don't have a large number of contractual employees.

It is very insignificant, may not be even 25 lakh, may not be 25 lakh.

Sir, my next question is, sir, on the capital raise. You have done the QIP, 2,000 crores in, I think, the March 25 quarter, and still the government holding is very, very high, 90.95 percent.

Is there any plan in the immediate future? You must have got already the approval, I suppose.

Are you planning to raise any, doing any further QIP, or government is going to planning for any OFS to reduce the government holding?

See, there are two ways. One is QIP, one is OFS.

I think OFS, already government is planning two banks. It is already done.

I think two banks are there in the pipeline. We may see that any time there will be OFS also.

By that, it will come a little bit lower. As far as requirement of capital is concerned, I have already shared that we are adequately capitalized.

Otherwise, if we add our nine months profit, even with these profits itself, we are more than 18 percent CRAR. Nevertheless, we have to achieve the requirement of SEBI also by bringing down the shareholding of the government to 75 percent.

We have already taken board approval, AGM approval, EGM approval, all approvals are in place. At the right and opportune time, we'll come to the market for QIP also.

We have taken approval of 2,700 crore from the board.

Sir, my last question in this round is on the treasury book, some color on that, because our treasury income, though in this quarter is little better than the last quarter, overall if you see, the treasury income contribution is coming a little down in the overall banking profitability. Going forward, how do we see our treasury behaving?

See, if you look at our treasury book, we have been maintaining this book almost at the constant level. We are not outgrowing, and if you look at March, from March little bit we have increased, from September rather, after June.

March to June we have not grown our treasury book, that was within the range itself, because that time the yield was low. After June the yields have again spiked.

We have started building up in some SDLs and all. Wherever we are getting an opportunity through OMO, we are exiting also and we are buying OMO also.

If you see, our yield also is improving, and our modified duration is around in the range of 3.6. So 3.6.

We are well placed as far as treasury book is concerned. We don't foresee any challenge as far as income from the treasury book is concerned, because very cautiously we are investing and liquidating the treasury portfolio.

Sir, very good, sir. Thank you very much for having replied to all my queries in this round, because I suppose many other people also must be waiting, though I can discuss for another 10 minutes on some of the other points, but I will give opportunity to others, sir.

Thank you very much and all the very best, and see that you grow much, much higher than what the target which you have given. Thank you, sir.

Thank you participants. Please raise your hand for the question.

We have a next question from the line of Sushil Choksey. Sir, please go ahead.

Yes, Choksey ji, I think you need to unmute.

Sushil sir, please go ahead with your question.

I think there may be some network issue or something. Yes, Sushil ji?

You can take somebody else also, otherwise then if Sushil is taking some time.

Yes, sir, please go ahead with your question if you have any further question.

Yeah. Sir, my in this round, you have got, in this quarter you performed very well on the NIM front also.

The NIM is 3.08 as against, I think your guidance of 2.9 or 3. Going forward, even in the, going back, even in the last quarter it was 2.9, and now 3.08.

Going forward, with all the kind of impact of the earlier liability mismatch and other thing and the deposit getting into the picture, because now the, I think button will get reduced. Do you think that the NIM will further keep improving or improve in the coming quarter to finish a good FY26?

I think NIM will continue to be in this trajectory only, because if you look at the pace of reduction in the deposit rate, that is not in line with the reduction in the repo rate. Still deposit is at a very reasonably high rate, not at lower rate.

I believe that the NIM should be in the range of this trajectory only going forward in the next quarter.

Sir. Sir, in the case of this SMA, though the SMA numbers are very much under control, and rarely you see this kind of only 0.68 or 0.5 for the corporate book, the entire SMA, including in your case even SMA zero also.

You said that corporate SMA was around something around 300 crore or something, isn't it? In SMA 2?

316? Is it one or two chunky, bigger accounts or which have slipped to SMA 2, or it's a, variety of the corporate accounts?

This is not SMA 2. This is all SMA, 0, 1, 2 put together is 316 crore.

This is not only two. 0, 1, 2 put together.

Achha 0, 1, 2 put together. There are various corporates, not some...

316 is corporate only. Corporate SMA 2.

SMA 2. That is why I raised that question that whether

the total is 511, SMA 2 is 316. See, it is not a one or two account.

There are a few accounts which are in SMA 2, but if you look at SMA 0, SMA 1 is zero. There are certain accounts which were there in SMA 0, they will come back to SMA 0.

Because of some reason they have come to SMA

2. No.

By the time, we are already one month, we are in January. Whether this SMA 2 was under control, means regularized, or...

Okay. No chance of slipping into the NPA?

Yes.

Can we discuss something more?

We will take the next question from the line of... Okay,

please go ahead. Sushil ji, aaiye.

Welcome. Sushil ji, unmute karna padega.

I think... unmute...

Haan, I think he is not able to unmute. We have already unmuted him.

There are... he is logging in from two...

Okay. Sushil ji unmute nahi ho rahi.

Sir, good evening. Congratulations to UCO management for very stable number.

Good evening,

good evening. Thank you.

Thank you, and sorry for all the hiccups which we are having with various technology platforms. Sir, seeing our result, if I have to look at growth, which is the core understanding which we need to have in the current economy.

PSU banks is the flavor of the season in stock market as well as on credit performance. What we should look forward from UCO in the quarter to come by and for the year of 26?

See, if you look at our growth, more particularly credit growth, and you look at the composition of credit growth, the proportion of each segment in the credit growth, and not only in December quarter but previous quarters as well. Every quarter, I will take the example of retail.

Retail is growing more than 20% for last four-five quarters. Within retail, housing is in the range of 18 to 19 to 20%, 18, 19, 20%.

Car loan growth is 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% in this range car loan growth is. Retail is growing, each segment is growing, and both the segments major components of retail, housing and car, are growing in proportion.

There is no challenge on the credit growth concern, and the subsequent quarters also will continue to grow in the same way, because there is a set pattern and stability is there. It's not that one quarter we have grown and one quarter we have not grown.

Similarly, agri also, on quarter on quarter, consistently we are growing. This quarter growth was around 23%, 24%, and previous quarter it was in the range of 20-17.

So 17%, 20%, 23%. Similarly MSME for last three quarters is more than 20%.

Prior to that there was some slowness in the MSME, but last four quarters it is 18%, 20%, 23%, plus 23%. Similar growth we can see in next quarter also.

How and why this growth is coming, because last year we revamped our underwriting standards, we started retail hubs and MSME and agri hubs. Now the decision making has happened centrally, our TAT has improved.

As a result the quality of underwriting has improved and service delivery time has also improved. That is leading to the credit growth in various segments.

Next quarter, I think the fourth quarter, similar trends we will see and we will achieve our guidance, which we have already given at the start of the financial year.

Sir, if we sustain our RAM growth with retail growth as a part of the story, how are margins in home loans, how are margins on auto loans, and how are margins on other products where we are likely to be, whether it's education or any other loans where we think will grow well. I understand that home loan in India is not a...

there is a big market yet to happen, looking at the urbanization and development. Education within India itself can become big with all the noise which is coming from Mr.

Donald Trump. Keeping in mind what product is very profitable, I understand second-hand car market you are far ahead of many banks, and I think leading PSU banks also have opened their eyes that Mr.

Ashwani Kumar is doing well at UCO Bank on this product. Let's look at it.

Can you highlight all these products, what will lead to a betterment compared to competition, where it can grow faster?

Yeah. If you look at our...

First let me talk about, you talked about margins. Our growth has come mainly from that segment, even then our margins have improved.

If you go back to the history, our margin used to be 2.8% NIM. Now we have already crossed three and we are consistently above three.

In last quarter, I think 3.03. This quarter, 3.08.

We have improved our margin. We are growing each segment and we are growing in profitable segments.

If you look at the segment where we are growing, car loan growth, our growth is around 70%. We have revamped our entire product profile of car loans, education loans, and home loans.

Agriculture loan, MSME, more than 30 products we have launched in last two years' time for various schemes to better to the requirements of our MSME customers. The NIM is coming from, better NIM is coming from MSME segment, even education loan, second-hand car loan, even car loan also.

Because when we take car loan, we have the opportunity of taking his CASA account also. Salary account, current account, in case he is a businessman, or family accounts, similarly.

We don't look at purely a transaction of housing loan and car loan. We look at the whole bouquet of products which we are able to offer him and generate some revenue by way of cost reduction through CASA, or by cross-selling of the product.

That is the way you can see that many of the banks, you can see there is a CASA reduction over a period of time, right? If you look at our bank, for last, I think March 23 onwards, we are continuously maintaining our CASA ratio in the range of 37 to 38%.

We have not seen decline in our CASA ratio, except in one quarter it was 36.91, but again next quarter it was 38. Overall the strength from where the margins are coming, through cross-sell also, through generating their CASA accounts, and we'll continue to explore and deepen the relationship with our customers.

Another important thing which is adding to our margins is our digital journeys. In last one year itself, we have digitized 30 journeys, and we have built a book of around 15,000 crore in digital journey.

More than 50% FDs are happening online through mobile banking and loan against FD. All this is adding to reduction in my cost also.

That is the way on a progressive basis we are trying to improve our cost also and income also by combination of various products and services.

Reply to my question, I accept that you are able to master CASA also along with selling retail products. On a hypothetical or reality, on an average basis, if I'm generating 100 loans, how many accounts are converting to other products?

See our endeavor is to get at least one more product from each customer. Our endeavor is there, but definitely not every customer.

Maybe 40 to 50% of the customers we are able to on-board on some other product.

Okay. Now looking at geographies where we are stronger compared to pan-India basis, how is the behavior on acceptance of our new products, existing products, and saving products?

Are we able to penetrate better compared to where we stand today, or the outlook is getting better, or we need to enter with new geographies and new branches for expansion?

See, if you look at our strength currently, more than around 30% plus branches are in East and Northeast, and similar is the trend in North. Far as expansion is concerned, we are more focused for expansion towards Western and Southern part, because there our presence is slightly less, and they are the more contributing states in the GDP of the economy.

That is one strategy we are working, that we are planning to open branches in those geographies where the GDP contribution is higher. We also look at the PIN code-wise deposit and credit profile of the area while we open the branches, number one.

Number two, as far as the penetration of products in the areas where we have strength or not, that itself speaks about the quality of our CASA, which we have maintained. Our CASA, had we not penetrated in those areas, we would not have been able to maintain our CASA in the ratio of 37 to 38%.

We have revamped our entire saving current account products, entire saving, and we are more focused towards salary. Recently the Ministry of Finance has announced a comprehensive salary package for the central government employees, where our bank is also participating, and we'll be opening now more and more salary accounts of various central government employees as well, and the benefits will continue to come to the bank.

That is the way we are working, and where we have strength, we are giving better products also to those areas. Apart from product, the differentiator, I think will be more important, is the customer service and the ambiance of the branches.

In these two fronts also the bank is continuously working to see that our customers get better quality of service and quality of resolution of their grievance also improves. On these fronts also we are working.

Answering to my question, you already elaborated that service and digital both are key towards whether to sell product or attract customer for deposit or any other services.

Yes.

How much spend are we likely to do on digitization over a period, other than what we have spent over next 12 to 24 months? I know it's a repeat question from every analyst.

No issues. We are more than happy to answer.

Second is customer service, human resource empowerment, and decentralizing lot of processes, centralizing the tad would be important, but decentralizing sourcing. When you are looking at expansion, what kind of unique measures and what kind of spend are we doing so that we garner more customers and our performance gets better than where we stand today?

Okay. Going by the first question, I think about the IT spend, IT and digital spend, this year we had kept a budget of around 1,100 crore, and around 700 plus crore is already spent.

Next year, our teams are already working for the plan for the next year. I believe the next year, because now majority of the projects which we thought of in last three years almost are nearing completion.

Still there is a lot of scope for further improvement and enhancement in our existing IT infrastructure also. I believe that next year it should also be in the range of 800 to 1,000 crore, because many projects are still in pipeline, like I talked about various projects which we are thinking, omnichannel, forex PC, forex card, our near DR we are planning, and then supply chain we are planning, CMS we are planning, CASA back office, CMS.

On cyber security also enhanced tools we are planning. We are planning to convert our call center into a profitable center through use of digital journeys through call centers.

There are number of initiatives, robotic process automation is also in the plan. Number of initiatives are there.

I think it should be in the range of 800 to 1,000 crore in the next year itself, next year also.

Sir, East is well known for resources, whether it is some of the agri-related specifically, or even in minerals. The world is chasing minerals, which is very visible, the country which has.

Now India also, for becoming a big manufacturing hub, we'll need our captive resources, and there is lot of demand likely to emerge in the part where you have good focus. Can you indicate if people are approaching you for some kind of working capital or term loan facilities where resources companies are concerned?

See, we have not seen much traction in this part. We have not seen as yet.

Maybe in the next quarter or so we'll get some good proposals in that. Till date we have not got any bigger ticket proposals in this area.

How is our international book shaping up?

International book is steadily increasing. I think deposit, if you look at our deposit growth in the international is around 18% growth in overseas deposits is concerned, and domestic overseas advances around 12% growth is here.

The published numbers I have seen it. I am saying from a future point of view, when the fight is for lowering interest rates, at the same time there are very many challenges geography-wise, based in Singapore and Southeast Asia predominantly, or GIFT city.

How is demand coming for those kind of loans on a fully hedged basis or international market? Can we have a good growth?

Because Indian management are also looking at opportunities of acquisition.

See, proposals are coming and the only challenge is in the pricing. That is the, we are taking a very calculated call where we have a good pricing and some margins are there, so that we are able to generate revenue for the bank.

Only those proposals we are taking. That is the reason you can see that growth is around 12% only in the advances.

Far as sources from the overseas market are concerned, we are raising resources in the overseas market. That is not a challenge, but lending at a profitable margin is a challenge.

We evaluate each and every opportunity, and also the repayment: if it is coming, at what rate. The earlier loan repayment is coming, at what rate.

The new loan is giving, whether it is giving some better margin from the previous loan. All those revenues we consider before taking a call to go ahead, to say no to any proposal.

Opportunities are there. Opportunity, there is no challenge about the opportunities.

With this, I think opening up of the M&A also new opportunities will be there, and I expect the margins may be better in the times to come.

My next question to Saboo-ji: what is the outlook on G-Sec based on current yield?

The markets, nobody can say anything about the markets as to how they will behave in the future. Yes, we have seen that G-Sec yields have strengthened in the last quarter also, and currently in this cycle, we are at the upper end of the yield.

We may see further little bit maybe, but I think this will remain in this range only, because RBI has been taking good initiatives, many new things they have done means OMO has been brought, and then again they are coming with VRR and all those things to manage the liquidity. The liquidity RBI is watching for and we get good support from them.

I think the yields on G-Sec will remain in this range only where it is moving for the last one quarter, at least in the last one month. We don't see much movement into these yields for the time being, because we know that RBI is having neutral stance, and inflation has at least been in the range of the RBI.

Any action further going forward will be only on the data basis. Which type of data comes on the growth front and on the inflation front, that will decide the future course of action.

We are also in the neutral position as of now, far as the yields are concerned.

Next question to Kamble sir: how much is unavailed credit from sanction today, and what is the pipeline for the quarter? Specifically for corporate credit.

Sushilji. In case of the corporate credit, almost 4 to 5,000 crores are unavailed.

In pipeline, almost 8 to 9,000 crores in the pipeline,

total 10 to 12,000 crores available in the corporates.

This is credit which you have sanctioned, allowing the low-yielding advances to be ceded, and then new replacement or existing customers borrowing new, I suppose?

It will be case-to-case basis,

sir. What is the exposure between—I may be getting a little into specific, but SIDBI, NaBFID, NABARD?

Nothing, zero. Zero.

Congratulations, sir. I am happy that, on one side you are not lending to them.

All exited. IVPC also exited.

Total zero.

Sir, I would take it as a good news that whatever your result, if there is no IVPC, there is no SIDBI, there is no NaBFID. Government may not like that you are lending at 6.15 and 6.25, but if you are yielding any assets at 8.5 and 9%, it's a very good news.

Then congratulations to team UCO, and best wishes for 26.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Pashmi Chheda.

You have been unmuted. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Hello.

I have one question. What is the quantum of MCLR cuts that you have taken so far in the year, and how much do you expect to cut in the next four to five quarters?

MCLR, I think, 30 basis points cut is already in place, and expected cut I can't tell you because it is to be decided by ALCO on a monthly basis. Next month we'll have on 10th again.

So 8th, 9th, 10th, because 10th is about 8. If you look at every month there is some reduction in MCLR, because it is based on the formula given by Reserve Bank of India.

I can't give you the number that how much will be the reduction in next quarter or next six months. Definitely, basis the formula, if reduction is there, it will definitely happen.

Till now 30 bps is already done.

Thank you. We have a follow-up question from the line of Ashok Ajmera.

Yes, sir. Thanks, sir.

Of course, Sushil has covered most of the remaining questions, which I could not take it earlier. Sir, I would still, luckily we have some time, and I would like to know the color of the NBFC book, Kamble sir, and Ashwani sir.

How do we stand there in the NBFC front? What about our policy?

Whereas I understand that we are a little choosy and rigid on the NBFCs. Having said that, what is our experience is that some of these NBFCs, even though they are small, but they are lending to the low-cost housing or low-cost and low amount of loan, average 7-7.5 lakh for the housing and other things.

Even though they are not rated A, maybe BBB minus or so, but they give the better opportunity to earn good money. The interest rate can be 9.5 to 10.5, anything between that.

What is the present situation, and are we thinking on those lines to little bit liberalize the small loans to the smaller NBFCs?

See, Ajmeraji, so far as NBFC or any other corporate is concerned, MSME, retail, bank looks at every proposal from bankable angle. If the proposal is bankable, we don't say no, even if it is a triple B or double B.

If they have an established track record, everything is there, and it fits into our norms, we don't say no to every proposal. Every proposal is examined on a case-to-case basis, and accordingly decision is taken.

There is no no-go to any one, we will not go with this NBFC or this corporate or this MSME segment. There is no such no-go type of thing.

Every proposal is examined from the credit angle and the bankability of the proposal.

What is the total exposure to the NBFC as on date? The

NBFC, if you look at, our exposure is around 27,000 crore to NBFCs. It works out around 12% of our total book.

That is 27,000 crore.

What is our experience?

There is no slippage in those accounts, except in MFI there was one slippage earlier. Our overall MFI exposure is now only, I think, less than 500 crore.

Not even 440. That is also under control.

If you look at one year back, it was around 1,300 crore. Now it is 440 crore.

Oh yeah, that is good to know, sir. Some color on the gold loan, sir—gold loan agree and non-agree?

Because now the categorization has been a little bit changed. I think the liberalization is there that you can take some collateral also, up to the, I think, two lakh rupees loan also.

What is the position of the gold loan, and are we bullish on that? What is the LTV?

Yeah.

If you look at our gold loan portfolio, it is around 15,000 crore only. We do not have very big exposure in the gold loan, 15,000, and of that around 4,000 should be in the retail, 4,000 plus should be in the retail, and around 10,500 should be in the agriculture segment.

This is the overall composition of our retail and agree. In retail, LTV should be in the range of 25 to 30 percent.

In agree, we will be around 15 to 20 percent in LTV. Again, what is the current price of the gold?

The base price taken is an average of some period. The base price and in the current price itself, there is a margin is there.

Over and above that we keep another margin. No, we don't expect any issue as far as the pricing, LTV, is concerned.

We have a robust system of auctioning and other things as per the SOPs there. SOP is there, and everything is in place.

The sale happens according to that only in case there is an auction is to be done.

Sir, just your views on whatever is happening around, the current geopolitical situation. Of course duty things are there, then the sanctions are there, more sanctions are coming, Iran and Russia and all that, and some unimaginable things are happening around.

Do you see, as per your banking portfolio, if you look at that, that there can be any major concern on that if something like this keeps happening? Do you have that particular segment which is exposed to this kind of businesses, or, are subject to these high duties and exports and other things?

Have you evaluated whether some work has been done on that to understand and to evaluate the situation if it arises, that what is the quantum which can be affected, sir?

See, if you look at our total... let me talk about this scenario first.

I think the geopolitical scenario, it is impacting not only UCO Bank but all the banks, even the customers also. Far as overall impact, if you ask, I believe we have a strong consumption economy, and if there is an impact on the export front, I think domestic is able to support the surplus quantity available of the products.

If I have to look at our banks exposure, we have around... No, how much is this?

We have around 2,000 crore of export credit exposure, and of which only 5 percent is in disruptive countries where some this tariff and all these things have happened. It is not a major one, around 100 crore of only exposure for the bank in those countries.

Not much of worry for the UCO Bank because our exposure to those countries is very limited.

Thank you. There is a question in the chat box: what percentage of your deposit book has been repriced so far, and what is the direction for the net interest margin for FY27?

See, around 75 percent of my deposit book has been repriced. I think remaining some portion will get repriced in this quarter, and maybe one-tenth of the book will be repriced in the first quarter.

By first quarter, entire book will be repriced, number one. Second, on margin front, I think it again depends upon the repo rate cut in the times to come, how it happens.

Still we don't know. In February, there is an MPC; in April there is an MPC, but given the scenario that there is no rate cut and the liquidity conditions remain same or rather improves, I think the NIM should be in the range of 3 percent in the next year itself, next year also.

Thank you. We'll take that as a last question.

I hand over the call to MD, sir, for his opening remarks.

Closing. Thank you very much to all the analysts and investors for joining the conference, taking out the time, and thank you for your trust and confidence in the bank.

We will continue to deliver our performance, stable and consistent performance in the quarters to come, and it will be our endeavor to come to your expectations. Thank you very much.

Thank you.