Yeah. 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, hosted by Emkay Global. From the top management, we have with us Shri Binod Kumar ji, MD & CEO; Shri Ashutosh Choudhury, Executive Director; Shri Shiv Bajrang Singh, Executive Director; and Shri Brajesh Kumar Singh, Executive Director; and Ms.

Mini T. M., Executive Director.

First, I would request MD sir to briefly summarize the key highlights from the fourth quarter FY 2026, FY 2026 results and also provide strategic direction on growth, margins, and asset quality for FY 2027, post which we will have the Q&A session. Over to you, MD sir.

Thank you, Anand ji. My colleague on board Mr.

Ashutosh, Mr. S.

V. Singh, Madam T.

M. Mini.

One correction: Mr. Brajesh Kumar Singh is not here; he is at some other meeting.

Dear investors, analysts, thank you for sparing your time and coming to the call of Indian Bank. If I summarize in result, I think it has been a decent year.

Almost all parameter except cost-to-income ratio, we have done better than our guidance. Deposit has grown by 12.79% and total deposit has grown by 12.29%, advance has grown by 13.43%.

CASA, which has been the challenge, CASA still we have grown by 10.85%. After a dip in June, consistently all three quarter my CASA share has gone up.

In September, it was 13.87%, then 39.08%, then 39.67%. CASA we have been able to maintain almost We have given guidance of 40%, 39.67%, almost we have maintained.

We remain very cautious in raising bulk deposit. Of course, we have to, but we remain very cautious in raising bulk deposit.

Advance has grown by 13.43% and primarily contributed by RAM sector. RAM has grown by 15.28%.

Corporate has grown corporate last year if you see, my growth was only 3%. This year, corporate also has grown by 9.19%.

Within RAM, it is contributed primarily by retail, which is 18.72%, and MSME, which is 16.39%. We have sanctioned around 6 lakh loan and ₹48,000 crore to MSME sector.

Jewel loan remain our strength area, jewel loan also has grown very at a very decent pace of almost 28% and reached up to 1.27 trillion. Coming to the efficiency parameter, net profit has reached for the quarter, 3,103 with a sequential growth of 1.3%.

For the year, 10,918 to 12,156 with a growth of 11.33%. Operating profit has touched 5,286 with Q-o-Q growth of 5.21%.

If I talk of annually, it has gone from 18,998 to 19,916 with a growth of 4.83%. NII also, 7,109 it has touched with a sequential growth of 3.09%.

If I talk of annually, with a growth of 6.91% and has reached 26,915. Other income, we have seen marginal decline sequentially, YoY 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 come down from 3.41 to 3.24, 17 basis point decline. We have given guidance of between 3.15 to 3.30, we have maintained that.

ROA for the quarter, it is 1.28. Q4, it was 1.28.

If you see annually, in March it was 1.32, and March '26 we ended at 1.31, only one basis point decline in that. Return on asset, for the quarter, it is 18.98%, but for the year ended, it is 19.53%.

Then cost-to-income ratio, of course, cost-to-income ratio is one area where we have [guidance?] , but actually we ended up for the year, it is 46.03%.

We have taken course correction, and cost-to-income ratio has come down from 46.90 in to 44.99 in March '25. Provision coverage ratio is constant at 98.28%.

We are maintaining since December also, March also; for the year also, it is same. Credit cost annualized, for the quarter, it is 0.47; annualized, it is 0.31.

Then asset quality, gross NPA has come down from 3.09 to 1.98 with a reduction of 111 basis point; net NPA from 0.19 to 0.15. Slippage ratio, for the quarter, it is 0.96%, but if I talk of annualized, it is 0.85%, which has come down from 1.11.

Recovery, for the quarter, it is 1,499, but for the year, it is 6,651. We have given guidance of between 5,500 to 6,500.

SMA, of course, I will like to highlight, 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%.

Good work has been done by the department on SMA front. SMA, if I talk of more than two more than 5 crore, it is 922 crore only.

We have made some provision, although we are not seeing any stress because of West Asia crisis, but we have made a provision of around 310 crore in the keeping this crisis in view. As I told in the SMA 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 cushion. Then during the year, we have sanctioned around 4,26,000 crore, taken all together—retail, agriculture, MSME, corporate—with a growth of 62%.

62% growth there is in the sanction. Corporate also we have sanctioned around 1.31 trillion.

Corporate also around 62% growth we have seen. Maximum growth is in MSME at 81%.

We have a pipeline of 51,000 crore. Not much of a stress we have because personal loan we don't have much, only 6,500; MFI also not much, 3,300.

In corporate, last year around 8,000 crore exposure in NBFC, it has come down by around 8,000 crore. Out of that NBFC exposure, in AAA, AA, and A, it is around 99%.

Majority of that is in AAA category. Coming to the guidance, we are giving deposit guidance of between 9% to 11%, advance growth of between 11% to 13%, CASA approximately we will maintain around 40%, CDR around 80%, gross NPA between 1.50% to 1.60%, net NPA at the same level, less than 0.25% you can say.

Recovery, of course, as our pool is coming down, going forward, this year also if you see from last year to this year, it has come down by around 1,000 crore. It was 7,600, which has come down to 6,600.

Giving guidance of recovery between 4,500 to 5,500. AUC recovery last year also was good.

We have given guidance of 2,000, and actually we surpassed that. We are giving guidance of recovery in written-off book between 1,200 to 1,500.

NIM guidance also, see, I don't see further rate cut, but cost of deposit I expect that it will remain elevated because of advance growth is outpacing deposit growth. 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 ratio we will maintain less than 1.

Broadly, these are the things. Apart from that, we have taken some initiative like I told in CASA, we have taken some initiative.

Because of that, we have been able to maintain CASA, almost maintain CASA share. Various products we have launched, and two products really we have seen good traction.

We are analyzing why other products have not taken off. In that line, we have launched IND Aspire for Women because in IND Aspire we have seen good traction, we have launched IND Aspire for Women.

IND GIG CHAMPION for gig workers, we have launched a new product, hopefully we will see some traction in coming quarter. Very recently we have launched.

Inoperative account, we have around 34 lakh inoperative account. We have made them operative, and that has resulted in total balance of around 4,000 crore.

Similarly, we are focusing on QR code and POS machine, etc., because float, I believe, these nobody now that as financial literacy is improving and there is a structural shift. People are becoming investor instead of saver.

We have to rely on float. Salary account, we have added around more than 3 lakh salary account we have added during the quarter.

Average balance, I would like to highlight average balance, if I see average balance in saving fund, normal account I'm saying, ex-BSBDA 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 1.88 lakh to 2.64 lakh.

We are focusing on the strengthening of the relationship, deepening of the relationship. Of course, two challenge I will say for this year: growth, I believe country, government, and RBI, as you must be seeing in the newspaper also, they will take all measures to sustain the growth, GDP growth.

If GDP growth is intact, I believe credit growth will also be intact. If there is some headwind on the GDP growth, of course, then impact will come on us.

Two immediate challenge I see: recovery, recovery of course has 1,000 crore already it has gone down; and this year treasury profit may not be to the extent it was last year. There 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 phase.

Now I will request my colleague 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 2025-2026 has grown by 63% and reached ₹2,72,000 crore. The mobile banking customers has increased to 2.36 crore, the base has increased.

The mobile banking transaction has shown a healthy growth of 15%, that is 65.8 lakh per month the transaction is happening there. The digital adoption rate in retail and agri has reached to 97%.

That means the retail and agri loan that has been sanctioned, that is 97% through digital channel. The bank is implementing 10+ AI and agentic AI related platforms with the help of almost more than 160 fintech partners.

When sir has touched about the CASA, let me say, last year we introduced a segment of customers, BBX, those who have not visited the branch for quite some time, we have classified them. That particular category of customers are almost increasing, and it has reached to 22 lakh, and the base identified to move some more customer, that base is almost 1 crore plus.

In the digital aspect, we have done that. 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.

In that platform, the module also will enable service request and sales management. This will not only deepen existing relationship with existing customers, but also it will give a boost to acquire new customers based 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 digitized the corporate credit, the journey is almost complete.

We are taking one step forward in corporate credit journey that I will discuss with all of you. We have partnership with POS aggregators where we can provide POS machine to customer of other bank.

Then we also introduced a new corporate website. We are strengthening our UPI app, IndUPI.

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 frauds as well as mule account.

We have introduced IND OPTIMA, that is our cash management services, where almost 150+ corporate customer has been onboarded. In the pipeline, I would like to also highlight some of the things.

We are introducing a corporate ecosystem engine which will help our relationship managers while negotiating with the customers. We are also planning to introduce an RFP creator because we produce a lot of RFP for onboarding IT and non-IT vendors.

We are also in the process of introducing invoice processing. This will automate the receipt, validation, approval, and payment of invoices.

In CRM platform, we are introducing lead nurturing management. We are introducing an intelligent document reader.

This will help in our documentation. Post sanction, when we go for documentation, this will check legality of that particular document.

Also with this EFRM solutions, suspicious transaction reporting that we are planning to automate. Along with this, with our new gen contact center, we are automating the grievance redressal mechanism which will reduce the TAT and improve the customer experience.

Thank you, sir, with this.

Thank you, sir. Now we'll take the Q&A.

Request all the participants to use the 'raise hand' option, and if you have a question, please unmute yourself. First question we'll take from Ajmera ji.

Ajmera ji, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Hello.

Yes, Ajmera ji. Yeah.

Hello, sir.

Good evening, sir, and congratulations for yet another good quarter. As you yourself has also said and I can see also that you have surpassed on the whole almost every front except one or two on the guidance.

That is commendable. Not only touched or this thing, but 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've done very well, 12.29%. AUC recovery in the entire year is very good, ₹2,508 crore.

Of course, next year's target you have reduced a bit than that. My compliments on that, sir.

My first question or rather I would like to seek your views and comments on this ECL guidelines now they've been finalized now, and RBI has declared the final guidelines which we were waiting for quite some time. Many of the banks had already started preparing for that and making some extra additional provisions also.

In our case, in our bank, how is the preparedness? How much total hit we are going to get?

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? Even though you are saying that even in this quarter also you made 310 crore extra provision on the standard asset to take care of any eventuality, but that is on the geopolitical situation, West Asia war.

Can I have your views on this, sir?

Yeah. Thank you, Ajmera ji.

Before coming to that, this quarter also we have sold IBPC of around 6,000 crore, and we have opened 102 branches against we have set target of opening around 300 branches in three years, we are on track of that. Coming to your question to the ECL guidelines, Ajmera ji, guidelines have come only yesterday.

Few things they have added. Whatever we have calculated in the draft guidelines, I think impact will be a little higher than that.

Actually, guidelines have come only yesterday. We are in the process of calculating, which I think in a week or Because see, I can give some number, but that will not be very relevant because ultimately next meeting we will say you have told this number, now you are saying this number.

I don't want to create that situation. We will give you concrete number so that variation is minimum.

Having said that, let me assure you, all of you, that impact is not going to be very huge because we, as all of we have been preparing in different ways, not in only name of ECL, but we have been preparing in different ways. We, since last five years, we have been going through a very good phase, I will say, benign asset quality phase.

I don't see much of the impact in the overall impact. As I told earlier in earlier call that we will be able to absorb all the impact in one year, now I am saying we will be able to absorb all the impact in, say, six to nine months,

maybe

between one to three quarter maybe. That is broad you can say.

Sir. Point well taken, sir.

Sir, my another observation is on the slippage in this quarter, which is increased to ₹1,355 crore as against about 1,000 crore in the last quarter. 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.

You also covered a little bit on this. Where do you see the First of all, do you see that it will make major impact if the war goes on or there's total uncertainty on that.

How and how much impact do you see, and from where it can come negatively? How are we prepared to take care of that?

If you can just elaborate on that. Coupled with that, the SMA numbers has drastically come down, SMA 2 from ₹4,309 crore to ₹922 crore, and SMA 1 has gone just little bit, 700 crore only higher.

Whether going forward, both these questions are coupled, it's basically connected to each other.

Yeah. Thank you, Ajmera ji.

If you see, from the December it has gone up, slippage. That is every quarter if you see every annual, March, there will be around 400 to 500 crore MOC.

This number has Hello?

Yes, yes.

This number has this number has gone basically on account of MOC. That was also in last March also, there was around 500 crore MOC.

This quarter also around 400 crore MOC. This this March will always we have some MOC because that because of that, slippage ratio will be higher.

Thereafter, that one thing I can assure you, during the financial year, this number of course, I mean 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. Every quarter you can assume that this slippage number will be less than that.

Number one. Number two, coming to SMA, SMA reduction, I will not take any brownie points because two government accounts are there, so that that is not in SMA 2, that's why number has come down.

No brownie point for that. SMA 1, SMA 1 increase has come because one account out of that is in SMA 1, SMA 1 has a little bit increased.

If you see SMA, total SMA, total SMA has really gone down. From last year 45,000 crore 46,000 crore, now it is 31,000 crore.

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 stress in the system.

I have believed in the resilience of the banking system and resilience of our economy. 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.

If economic growth rate is maintained, I think the government will take some measure, and because of that, I am not seeing much impact on the asset quality also. If at all if at all because already it is around four to five months around seven months if you take from August, means four and three, seven months, almost seven months.

Then almost it should have started some incipient increase in SMA, which we are not seeing.

Not seen.

Hopefully we will tide this time also without being impacted much.

Sir, now on the treasury also you touched. On the treasury front, in this quarter also it has taken a toll, the loss on the sale of the investment is 100 the ₹105 crore, and then profit 99 crore minus.

The treasury is have a pressure on this as far as this quarter, even in the last quarter also it was there little bit. You also said at the same time that going forward, since we have the higher income investments in our book, 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. Impact only one only limited, my point is impact will not be very severe.

See, if you have sold all the securities and has raised securities with the lower yield, then my impact would have been higher. Since we have not sold, impact will be there, of course, but impact will not be as severe.

Still I expect that around for the year, I'm saying, maybe around 1,000 1,200 profit we will earn through treasury.

Sir, your digital front, you have performed exceedingly well. In fact, there is lot of advancement, and Ashutosh sir has, as usual, explained very much in detail about the digital advancement of the bank.

In the real term, whenever this journeys are completed and this digital products are put to the use, are we assessing the actual impact of the digital introduction or apart from the surveillance and other thing which doesn't directly produce anything, are we seeing any commercial benefits? Is there any study done on that and vis-a-vis the kind of investment which you are making?

Every bank is making huge investment on this, but have you started measuring it on the impact on the revenue on the positive side, and how much is it? Is that process has been put into the practice, sir?

See,

very very pertinent point, Ajmera ji, because I have also been saying that we are spending huge in IT, but benefit of that to the extent we desire is yet to come. That will happen as our digital adoption, not only adoption, people actually start using digital channel.

Yes, yes, of course. If you ask, are we getting benefit?

We are getting benefit. Like our 94% transaction are through digital channel.

If they visit the branch, cost will be at least 5x higher. If a customer visit branch, cost will be at least 5x higher plus we will have to keep more employee.

We are taking benefit, if not directly, indirectly. We are taking benefit of that.

As rate of this adoption will increase, one just one data I'm sharing. Say digital FD, people come to bank for making FD.

We have just tried to push that why people are coming to the branch. There are a certain set of people, they will definitely come, we don't discourage them.

Those who can do transaction on their own, we are encouraging them to do transaction on their own. As when they will do transaction on their own, of course, that will be cost saving to us.

What a coincidence, sir, on this. I was sitting with a client just little before, in the afternoon only.

Of course, that is a private bank. He was having ₹1 crore only in the current account.

It's a small MSME kind of a client. I said, 'Why don't you stagger it and put it in the FD?'

That person came within 15-20 minutes. They had come, visited, and on the spot online, he made three FDs of ₹20-25 lakhs for different duration of 91 days to 271 days, whatever.

On the spot within 5 minutes, the FDs were made on the system only, and seen. Of course, effect-wise positive, whether it would have been in the current account, it would have benefited more for 3 days to the bank.

That's a different thing, but ease of doing business. Only thing, many of the bankers I'm talking about is the time has not come when we start using some tools, putting some measurement that the profit or the advantage can become measurable?

We will try to. It is in the backdrop of the mind, but So, one one measure that I run in my mind, just share with you, that say if you see manpower of the banks has remained constant over last 5 years,

but

if you see business of bank has grown by double or in few cases more than double. Of course, benefit we are driving.

It's not that benefit we are not driving, only thing it is not quantified on paper. We will definitely try to.

Sir, you have become almost ₹15 lakh crore business bank, just shying away with ₹5,000-6,000 crore only. Anyway, sir, compliments to you, all the best to you,

and

if time permits, I might come again. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Ajmera ji.

Any other participant, if you have a question, please use the 'raise hand' option. We'll have question from Akshay Badlani.

Akshay, please unmute yourself and ask the question.

Yeah. Hi, thank you for taking my question.

My question was around the lines of, as you indicated, the cost of funds will be going up, currently also it's going up. 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.

Then that only area remains loan linked to MCLR. Because there cost of fund is inbuilt also.

That is the only lever, but MCLR is also formula-driven, you cannot do much. Then only one thing remains: we take benefit of IT and try to at least maintain CASA share 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.

Only that remains. Asset quality we have to ensure that asset quality remains very good, otherwise NIM is also not there and there is issue on the asset quality, then of course there will be tough time.

Right. Sure.

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

agri we don't have much challenge because majority of my agri book is from jewel loan. Agri we don't see any challenge.

MSME, of course, if some stress come, which is if industry is impacted, I will also be impacted. As I told, I think government will also do something.

If something happens, then government will do also something. At least as of now, it is not reflected.

As I told in SMA, otherwise something must have started inching up, at least in SMA, not NPA, then SMA it must have started inching up. Far I have not seen, and believe we will pass through this phase without being impacted much.

Okay. Sure, sir.

Sure. Thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you, Akshay. Next question we'll take from Jay.

Jay, please unmute yourself.

Yeah. Hi.

Good evening, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. Sir, if you can quantify, you have said that the total SMA is 31,000 crore.

If you have the number for SMA 0, 1, and 2 separately?

Yeah. Thank you, Jay.

Total SMA is 31,000, out of that SMA 0 is 50 almost 16,000, SMA 1 is 9,000, SMA 2 is 6,000.

Okay. Sure.

Sir, I think, okay, SMA 0 only has gone up, but if I compare versus last quarter, then 1 and 2 they have reduced. Okay.

1 is similar, and 2 has reduced.

Okay.

Secondly, sir, on your growth, last year at the beginning of the quarter we also said 10%-11% kind of a growth, but if I look at this year, we ended at around 15% kind of a growth. You have excellent asset quality, 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? Are you okay with the growing lesser than industry, or you want to be at least similar to industry?

This year also industry grown at 16%, I'm okay even if a little bit slower than industry, without compromising on the asset quality and NIM. My focus is, of course, growth, but NIM and asset quality should also remain intact.

One thing why I am giving guidance of 11% to 13% in advance, let me tell you, around 16% to 17% of my book is jewel loan. Last year jewel loan, because of the increase in price, we have seen good number.

Maybe similar kind of growth we may not see in jewel loan this year. That's why I'm giving guidance of between 11% to 13%.

Understood. Understood.

Sir, the retail term deposit, that should continue to improve, right? As of now, even if bulk of the repricing is over, but still the cost of deposit will keep reducing only, right?

Is that understanding right or not? No.

See, retail term deposit also we are not able to reduce any rate of interest on that. Because bulk is at elevated level, then you cannot keep very wide gap between retail term deposit and bulk.

Because of that, even retail term deposit will remain at this level. Or maybe few of the banks, if you have noticed, in March few of the banks have increased retail term deposit rates.

Right. Okay.

Sure. Sir, if you can quantify your AFS reserve, how much is the AFS reserve as end of the quarter and maybe quarter 3, just to understand how much was the swing?

Yeah. Swing is see, December quarter it was 400 plus, March quarter it is -200.

Okay. Around ₹4,200 crore swing, right?

No, 4,000 I told, 400. 400 to 400 to -200.

Right. Right.

Sir, total gold loan book, sir, you have given the retail gold, but how much will be the agri gold and MSME gold put together, if you have that number?

1.27 is the total jewel loan. 1.27 lakh crore.

Right. Okay.

Thank you so much, sir. I'll come back in the queue, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Jay.

Yeah.

Thank you, Jay. Next question we'll take from Parth Gutka.

Parth, please unmute yourself.

Yeah. Hi.

Hi, sir. Sir, my question is on the overseas advances.

Last couple of quarters, we are seeing phenomenal growth in this segment. Can you just elaborate on the same, which part of the as in this relating to which sector and from which regions?

Yeah.

We have only two branches. Sri Lanka, hardly anything.

Only GIFT City and Singapore. We are participating basically in the syndicated loan and some trade finance.

Not any sector specific, but we are participating in syndicated loan, from different sectors it are, not any specific sector.

Okay. Sir.

My next question is, what is the proportion of bulk deposits within the overall deposits?

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

Okay. What is the internal threshold?

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

Okay. Sir.

Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks a lot for answering my questions.

Thank you, Parth.

Thank you. Next question we'll take from Akshay Badlani.

Akshay, please unmute yourself. Akshay is not around.

We'll take the question from Jayant Kharote. Jayant, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Jayant, request you to unmute yourself and ask your question. Jayant, we're not able to hear you.

Am I audible?

Jayant. You're audible.

Sorry about that. First question is on the asset quality.

If you can help us quantify what is the total outstanding floating provisions that you hold on your book, contingent or floating? Then follow-up to that is the ECL 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 size? Why I'm getting slightly confused is you said the number may be higher, but then you said we will do it in three quarters and not four, is this about the steady-state impact, or is it about the one one-time impact?

If you can just sort of give these three three clarifications.

In NPA, in fact, we are not holding any floating provision. NPA, whatever account, we are making only specific account-wise provision.

Number one. Number two, see, why I told 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 scenario. Keeping these scenario in view, I have told that maybe we may need one year time.

Now that final guidelines has come, and now with almost certainty we can say, of course number we are calculating, and why there is some impact, because HTM book earlier, it was not part of the draft guidelines. Now HTM book has come, that's why impact will go up.

Overall impact, what we are seeing, say, worst-case scenario, from worst-case scenario, now it has improved. That's why I'm saying it will go up, but overall impact will be less as compared to worst-case scenario.

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

They don't tell even me. My CFO is very hard nut.

He does not disclose to me also.

No, but you would have some idea because it will be needed in FY '27 to offset the ECL impact, right?

They are giving only the impact, that too exact they have not given so far. We are working on that.

Let us let us see.

How much of this quarter at least can you call out of the provisioning this quarter was linked to NPA provisions and others was standard?

NPA, see NPA will not help much. We have around this quarter around 500-odd crore 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 tending? I have a follow-up.

LCR we are comfortable. Throughout the year, we are comfortable, and because of the implementation of this new guidelines from 1st April, there is benefit of 4 to 5 basis points.

Where are you right now on the LCR?

LCR, 127? Average is 127.

At present, we are at 123-124. Then

just to add, if you are sitting at 127 and you will have 400 to 500 bps release, why run at such a high LCR when you are paying such high cost for deposits? Why not operate at 115-120, and it will help your NIMs?

Without taking name of the bank, one bank had to raise very huge sum at very high cost. I don't want to create that situation when everybody panics.

A little cushion

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

I think around 115 to 120, you should have. Going below 115, say one some event may entirely impact.

Let me tell you, we are not making special efforts for maintaining LCR. Whatever we have access in the SLR book, that is contributing to maintaining of the SLR.

It's not like that we are specifically for this purpose we are purchasing SLR.

Great. Basically, that's why you're also not guiding for very high trading profits because you want to enjoy that on both on NIMs side as well as LCR side benefits of that bonds.

Fair, fair. At least that is a good safe strategy.

Thanks, thanks.

Thank you, sir.

All the best for the next year.

Thank you. Thank you, Jayant.

Thank you, Jayant. Last question we'll take from Ashlesh.

Ashlesh, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Hi, sir. Good evening.

Sir, two questions from my side. First one is on the comment you made.

Prefer to prioritize maintaining margin and asset quality over just growth. Good to hear that.

Sir, if I have to paint a scenario where over the next year, the cost of deposit 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? What levers would you have at your disposal?

That is one. Secondly, you made a statement about ECL that you will potentially be able to absorb it over a period of 1 to 3 quarters.

Does that mean that the ECL shortfall one-time number will be somewhere between 1 to 3 times your quarterly PPoP? Is that the understanding?

You can make inference, but that is a huge number gap. 1 to 3 quarter is a huge gap.

COD,

of course, as I told you, if cost of deposit keep on inching, part of that will be offsetted by increasing in MCLR, because cost of deposit is also part of the MCLR. Part of that, of course, MCLR start increasing, then that will help.

Anything you can do on the asset side, possibly change the mix further towards better yielding assets or pricing?

See, asset side I really don't see much of the scope because in corporate book, definitely not. Something can be done in the segment, say mid-segment, you can say and again, retail MSME is linked to your EBLR.

There also you cannot increase spread, etc. That book is also tied up.

Only thing remains some corporates between mid-segment corporate. That's why we are focusing on mid-segment corporates between 50 crore or 100 crore to 500 crore.

There we can command little better price as compared to the corporates or retail and MSME. That area remains my focus area.

Understood, sir. Second one on that ECL 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 quarters.

That is a huge 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 way, it is not right.

If I give your number and that number go up, it is not right for anybody. Either way also, if I give number and then come down substantially, that is also not right.

It is too early. Only day before yesterday it has come.

Understood, sir. Sir, and just lastly, if I can squeeze in one 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, per quarter if you are making, say, 800, maybe 100 crore you can say we can save.

Understood, sir.

Yeah.

Perfect. Sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashlesh.

Sir, one question which has come in the chat box, again it is related to ECL only, is that earlier basically you have said that about 1% to 1.5% would be the impact on the capital in terms of ECL. Now it would have gone up or down, whatever I think when you do the calculation.

Does it mean that in FY '27 itself you will absorb the ECL impact through P&L and you will not need any impact to be taken on the 1st April 2027 through net worth? Is that what it means?

No, no.

1% to

1.5% I have told we will absorb in 1 year. That is what I have told.

1% to 1.5% impact, maybe somebody might made inference out of that. Of course, some impact will come in next year also because entirely we cannot make provision in this financial year.

Although we have four quarter, but still we cannot make entire whatever requirement is there. Some impact will spill over to the next year also.

Okay. Despite absorbing the ECL impact, you're still guiding about 1.2% to 1.3% ROA?

In this year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you expect some one-offs to come through that you won't absorb so much of ECL impact this year itself?

No, no. No one-off.

Normal. This year also, similar.

Despite doing all these things, we have been able to maintain around 1.3.

Sure, sir. Last question we'll take

Only challenge that treasury will not be there. Part of that will be compensated by NIM decrease, I expect that it will not be as severe as last year.

Sure, sir. Last question we'll take from Sushil Choksey ji.

Please limit your questions so that we can end the call on time. Over to you, Sushil ji.

Good evening. Congratulations to team Indian Bank.

Sir, based on current global environment, India may be better off and southern states are even better off because 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 unavailed credit as of today?

We have around 51,000 crore pipeline. Out of that, sanctioned and unavailed is 34 35,000.

That is term loan only. That is the pipeline.

What sectors are attracting Indian Bank to underwrite businesses, sir?

Two, three sectors, Sushil ji. One, green, you see already green are everywhere.

Battery also, EV also, then solar power also, transmission line also I think this year we will see a lot of this government PPP. Then 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 are led by auto ancillary, textile, other manufacturing sectors like leather tanneries in south?

Textile, I think textile is struggling since last one year. Before that also, textile was not doing very great.

In fact, that has saved many of the textile companies. Since last two, three years, they were not doing very good, I know many of the company, they have not availed any of the working capital even.

Few of the company I know who has not availed working capital since their sales is not very good, sir. Leather we don't have much exposure in leather, we don't worry much on that count.

Only a little bit worry we had for the textile, but I think so far they have tied away.

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 summation of your Q&A.

Yes. Asset quality plus bottom line is also important.

Sir, one last question to Ashutosh ji. What is the digital budget for this year?

As India is transforming, we also need to transform, processes are changing. What is our budget now for coming years on the digital front?

Sushil ji, let me answer it in a relative manner. The budget will be more or less equivalent to the human cost, that means the salary and all those things we are paying to our employee.

In that way, you can definitely correlate.

You match the human cost in digital spend, that's what you mean.

Almost the employee cost it will be in and around that.

Any signs on RAM specifically of some kind of indicator warnings that economy is having some impact? Specifically in April.

Not much of impact we have seen, Sushil ji, because even otherwise SMA, it would have started increasing SMA. Not much impact we have seen.

Sir, thank you for answering all my questions and good luck for the year to the entire team of Indian Bank.

Thank you, Sushil ji. Thank you, Sushil ji.

We will take that as last question. With this, we come to the end of Indian Bank's post-results conference call for fourth quarter FY 2026.

I now request the management to give their closing remarks, please, if you have any, sir.

No, I think all the points has been discussed. Only thing as I told, we remain very cautious for the bottom line and asset quality.

Growth, we are okay with 1% to 2% less than the industry, so that is okay. This year also, it is around 13.46%, whereas we could have shown even more because for the year we have sold around 23,000 of IBPC.

We remain cautious of that. Two challenges as I explained earlier this year: recovery and treasury income.

We will be able to maintain whatever guidance we have been given. Thank you all.

Sure, sir. That's very helpful.

On behalf of Emkay and the management of Indian Bank, I thank all the participants for joining this evening, and have a good day. Thank you.

Thanks, Anand ji. Thank you, all.