On the ECL now since the ECL guidelines have come out, the final guidelines from RBI. So how prepared we are? How do you see the impact of the ECL and then how fast you see that the impact can be absorbed without affecting the profitability much?
See, we are actually for since last at least 1 or 2 years, sincerely working towards developing models, improving quality of data and also our strategy of financing also and containment of slippages and all which I told, these things are going to really support us in migrating to the ECL side. And as regards our impacting on profitability side, looking at our growth and net profit and profitability, I don't find any challenge in migrating to the ECL framework as of 1st April '27. But as regards numbers, if you will ask me, though we have till previous quarter, INR1,575 crores additional provision we have made for this purpose. But the actual simulation, depending upon the final guidelines, still we are working on this side. That's why at present, I will not be able to tell you the numbers actually, which will be required for that purpose.
On the technology side. Can we have some short report on the technology development and what kind of spending we have done, what kind of budgeting we are planning?
This, I would like to provide you offline.
On the treasury. Treasury front, of course, there was a pressure this year. But now with the things a little bit changing, where do you see, what do you see our treasury contributing start again contributing to the profits in the coming FY '27?
See, we started year by yield of 6.58%, then it got down to 6.14%. And in March, we have closed by 7.03%. So in that way, it has impacted a lot our profitability this quarter, at least only INR9 crores from treasury we got. But looking to the improved condition and situation now, by optimal deployment of our investment portfolio and also IPO market also previous year also, we have got a good amount of profitability, excess profit. I am quite hopeful that this year also, looking to the market condition, we'll be able to optimize return on treasury side also.
Sir, I want to break up if I missed a few things. I'm looking forward to the next year, that is the current financial. FY '27, can you guide us what is your thought process on deposit advance, NIM, CASA, RAM and CD ratio, recovery from technical written accounts, digital spend, HR processes, our insurance subsidiary?
Question is bouquet of questions. I will answer one by one. Mr. Choksey, thanks for the question. First, I will answer you regarding deposit mobilization. This time also, you see in CASA, we have grown by 9.75% and percentage-wise also 47.30% is our CASA ratio. And to achieve this, actually, our team has worked hard, and they designed the products suited to the different segments of the customer. If I can tell you regarding term deposit, our growth was more than 14% - 15% there also, our growth is very good. So resources is not a challenge for Central Bank of India. CD ratio in December was 72% in September 2025 it was 66%., in March, we have closed at 73.80%, approximately 74%. There is improvement. Regarding asset quality, you see our slippage ratio, we have maintained it at 1.16%. And gross NPA and net NPA also, you see 2.67% and 0.49% is in percentage terms, INR9,185 crores and INR1,666 crores in absolute terms. As we migrated to the new tax regime, there will be benefit of 10%. We have simulated that more than INR600 crores is going to be the additional income due to migration of this aspect.
Central Bank is geared up for a lot of betterment in the coming year and the years to come under the tenors and the leadership along with your team. I would like to hear if you can specifically address on those parts?
Yes. Actually, we are working on bringing improvement in the processes, investing in people. Yes, you told about HR also. Yes, investing in people, number of training programs we are providing the first time regional led program, leadership development program. All these things are also on the card so that our capabilities are built. In technology side, also a lot of investments we are making. So that's why we are sure that guidance which we have given for business growth of 14% to 15% for current year and deposit growth by 10% to 12% and advances growth by 14% to 16%, we are going to achieve all this guidance, which we have given. with the confidence, I am talking because the kind of enablement and system improvement, technological integration with business models we have made, we are sure that easily Central Bank of India will be able to achieve all these parameters.
What kind of sanction pipeline and undisbursed credit limits are visible to you today? What is not available today?
Actually, there might be that data, I am not ready with that now. Actually, I will be able to provide you offline.
Sir, Ajmera missed a question, which has been repeated in last 8-9 quarters about the lumpy account of the airline, where are we today?
That lumpy account actually process is going on. Previous quarter, we received INR515 crores as guarantee and recovery process is going on. We are going for auction and all whatever processes are available, we are going to utilize those processes.
Sir, second thing I noticed that you have tied up with a lot of mutual funds for distribution now. And with CASA at 47% to 50% range over a period of number of years, I see a lot of income likely to generate from CASA, 3-in-1 accounts and distribution capabilities which you're building. Are we sensing early benefits of it or it's yet to fructify?
Actually, we are going to start wealth management division, rightly said by you, and that we are going to establish with customer relationship concept and also credit card part and also sales and marketing team. The initiatives we are going to implement in Central Bank of India, which will certainly help us in actually garnering more income, fee-based income, advisory income. Those opportunity will be open for Central Bank of India.
Sir, any highlights on the insurance JV and how it's shaping up for income side?
See, these are untapped potential for Central Bank of India, both life and non-life, we are having strong relationship with generally insurance companies. And this year also INR161 crores we got, but it is flat if you compare with the previous year. The huge opportunity is there. So for that purpose, our team is working on how to leverage upon the tie-up and how we can get more and more revenue and income from these tie-ups.
Sir, what will be our gold loan book size? And what will be the LTV in it and the yield on the same?
Total gold loan is around INR28,000, total growth is 8.6%.
Operating profit also has gone down and resulting into the net profit also going down because of the onetime tax implication. Gross NPA and net NPA both in absolute numbers have gone up. Are you seeing any stress in the system for the current fiscal because of geopolitical situations, or even some of the old accounts are also getting slipped because of higher slippage in this quarter?
Yes. Thank you, Ajmera ji, for your question. Regarding reduction in profit you talked about operating profit, it has grown by 4.3%. But if we compare on a quarter-on-quarter basis, yes, actually, it was mainly due to 2 reasons. One was actually regarding AFS mark-to-market. And that actually, if you see treasury income, previous quarter, it was more than INR300 crores. And this quarter, it is INR9 crores. And also recovery in written off account. You see recovery in written of account previous quarter, it was more than INR1000 crores that is INR1062 crores. But this quarter, it is only INR352-odd crores. But if you see our net interest income has increased by 1.97% as year-on-year basis, it is INR14,171 crores. And net profit rightly said by you because we have taken onetime hit of INR632 crores towards DTA. Regarding asset quality, our total slippage ratio of total year is 1.16 as compared to previous year which was 1.45. There is overall improvement in asset quality management. And for next year, we have given guidance that we are going to keep it less than 1%. And regarding your another question regarding impact of Middle East crisis, till now, we have not received any request of customers for any overdue PCs or any post-shipment facility.
On the credit front, you have done very well. Now going forward, how much sanctions are in pipeline? How are we prepared for business growth through our CRAR? And going forward, what are our plans or targets on the credit front?
See our CRAR is 17.91% with CET1 15.61%. Our capital is not a constraint for meeting our growth aspiration in credit side. We have given guidance of 14% to 16% in credit side growth. And with the current capital strength, we will be able to meet this expectation -- aspiration, which bank is visualizing. And regarding undisbursed sanctions, you see our 68% book is RAM side, retail, agriculture and MSME. Since November, we have started outreach program; more than 100 places we have organized, MSME, retail and agriculture outreach program and good number of prospective leads, potential business leads we actually mobilize. And similarly, in corporate side also, we have closed the book at INR1,09,945 crores. That is also growth of 14.50% in that way, actually, we have identified potential branches. In MSME, there are 225 branches, agriculture, there are more than 300 branches. And for corporate also, we are opening more corporate finance branch and MCBs, where trained people like more than 900 officers we are going to get in the month of October, whom we are going to deploy them at different credit potential branches.
What would be the balance between RAM and corporate in the current year estimate?
See, we have given the guidance of 65%-35% plus/minus 5% and we are maintaining this current year also, this year, 58% : 32% is the ratio. We are going to maintain this guidance, 65%: 35% plus/minus 5%. Because in corporate side, we are actually really balancing with the risk and return. And only good rated customers only, we are selecting because looking to our experience of PCA days. So in that way, we are very selective in corporate side. But you can see still there is a growth in corporate side also INR1,09,945 crores, that amounts to 14.50% growth.
Sir, what is the estimate of recovery forecast for current year from written-off assets?
Recovery, actually, see, we are having INR32,000-plus crores in technical written-off account. And this year also as you can see INR2,270 crores have been recovered in written-off account. And previous quarter was more than INR1,100 crores. Similarly, INR2,200 crores to INR2,500 crores easily we can recover from written-off account this year also and coming 2-3 years is not going to be a challenge for us.
Sir, you are strengthening a lot of HR process and digital and feet on street and a lot of government accounts, which means you are going to do a lot of digital spend. So have we made some kind of a budget for current year for digital spend?
Yes, yes, there is budget for the same; actually for capital budget, it is INR1,442 crores and revenue is INR1,276 crores for current year 2026-27.
Sir, you answered that so far, there are no indicative signals led by the global mishap, which is led by war. But any indicators on retail or MSME in month of April about collection, any early signals or everything seems in order?
Till now, actually, I am regularly proactively interacting with my credit monitoring team. And Daily morning in charge of the credit monitoring team updates me. But till now, no such kind of slippage is observed, I can give you an example of 20th April, it was INR250 crores. Slippage was INR250 crores because that was the date when that Demand is higher. So only INR250 crores, and for March and February also, approximately, this is a number of slippage. So that's why there is no abnormality or any incipient signal due to the Middle East crisis we are facing.
Sir, first question is on your slippages. I see that your fresh slippages have increased substantially Q-o-Q. Can you just explain the reason for that?
See, many of these slippages, particularly in MSME may be attributed to kind of technical. Okay, the auditors are saying that the credit submissions are not commensurate with the business projections, whereas the units are working. So because most of these branches go under audit in this the quarter. So that is one thing. And secondly, some agriculture accounts have been identified. So no slippages. That is the only reason why our slippages are INR1,301 crores as against roughly around INR800 crores on an average every quarter. Government is concerned in MUDRA, PMEGP, etc., up to INR10 lakhs, more slippages.
On the ECL transition. I understand that you would want to wait before sharing an impact on the onetime impact. But can you at least comment on what the recurring credit cost can increase by the new transition to the ECL regime?
See, our back of the envelope kind of a calculation for ECL impact was always around INR4,000 crores, which is very conservative. Out of that INR1,525 crores, we have already built up. Now that Reserve Bank of India has permitted that we can take the impact through reserves. So bank being sufficiently capitalized at 17.91%, I can easily take the impact on day 1. I can easily take the entire impact on day 1 without any problem. Secondly, what you are saying is an ongoing basis. So ongoing basis, our estimates are that roughly around INR600 crores of provisions would be required for the entire financial year on an ongoing basis. But that one impact that my transition to new tax regime itself is likely to give me a positive impact of around INR600 crores to INR800 crores. So these 2 impacts can easily be balanced.
INR600 crores to INR650 crores number, that is the increase in credit cost on an ongoing basis or that is the final credit cost on an ongoing basis?
No; See, what we are saying because of the transition to ECL, suppose if my SMAs increase, even in normal course. As per the IRAC guidelines, I need to maintain 0.25%, 0.4% and 1% provision on all the assets. Here, in the ECL regime, there is difference, here slabs are provided. So based on that, we estimate that additional provision required would be of the order of INR600 crores to INR650 crores because as my standard advances also increased, there will be an additional outgo, right? So that that additional cost will be more than met out by transition to new tax regime, where also we are seeing an upside of around INR700 crores.
Your margin has improved quite a bit in this quarter by 30 basis points, but your yield on advances and cost of funds has not really moved. Need to understand the reason for this increase in NIM?
Yield on advances year-on-year basis, it is 8.21%. And in this quarter, it is 7.78%. And cost of deposits is actually, if you see 4.82%. So in cost of deposit, actually there is a reduction of only 2 basis points. But if you see in yield on advances, it is 57 basis point dip. Major reason behind it, actually our more than 60% - 61% advances are external benchmark linked part. That's why impact was huge. And our major advances as 61% I told you are external benchmark linked. The rates are immediately actually passed on to the customers. And the deposits gets repriced with a lag. So that was the major reason behind actually what you are saying. We are working on these aspects also so that how we can revisit our processes that so that at larger scale, our team can handle the sanction disbursement of retail agriculture and MSME side. And also the deposit repricing also will happen. In next quarter, it will be completed. That margin part also will be improved.
Sorry to interrupt, but the question is on the quarter-on-quarter movement in NIM. In spite of all the things you said, the NIM has actually improved by about 30 basis points quarter-on-quarter. That is the movement I'm trying to understand?
See, there is one item. We got a refund of INR431 crores in income tax interest as income tax interest. So that has also contributed towards improving the NIM on a quarter-on-quarter basis. This we accounted for in March '26 quarter. But excluding this item also, the NIM has not been much impacted. I mean it was 2.96% in last quarter. It is around 2.89% or 2.9% in this quarter.
Sir, can you give your total say, standard asset provisions, which are incremental to the IRAC norms?
We are holding around 0.7% to 0.8% of total provision on standard assets. So I mean, this works out to roughly around INR2,800 crores to INR2,900 crores of total standard provisions we are holding.
And what will be incremental as compared to what would be required, the gap would be how much, sir?
See, INR1,525 crores is straight away the ECL provision. That is additional provision. Thereafter, as per 7th June RBI circular on restructuring, we are holding provisions. So all this put together, we are holding provision of around INR2,800 crores- 2,900 crores.
And sir, we have kind of industry-leading CASA and our LCR is also industry-leading. So on liquidity side, we are very strong. So how do you see because banks would have constraint in terms of deposits going forward and CD rates are also moving up? So how do you see your yield and NIM moving in next year?
We have given direction that we are going to remain above 3%. And in that way, CASA and rightly said by you, liquidity is not a concern for us. Previous year, we maintain liquidity coverage ratio at 210% and CD also, we have closed by 73.90%. There is ample scope for advances and also liquidity we are having, which can support our growth. And having good CASA base, we have actually good margin also. through which we can maintain the NIM side. And our focus area for this year, current year also and onwards, focus upon building upon our strong CASA build and base, aligning with the customer behavior.
So if I take off the 2 one-off items, which is the tax impact for that provision and your income tax refund, our net profit would get basically settled at around INR1,050 crores, if I'm right?
INR724 crores plus INR632 crores, minus INR431 crores. So INR925 crores.
But what was the tax?
See, these tax refunds because we were supposed to make the advanced tax payment and all we are making, whereas we were not required to actually pay any taxes because we had the business losses. I mean, even though it appears as a one-off item, but it has been a regular feature for the last 5 years, if you can see, right from 2021 onwards, we are getting these refunds, this INR632 crores DTA impact, I agree that this is actually onetime. This will not be there next time onwards.
Yes. So in March '25, we had INR318 crores as other income. How much income tax refund would have been in that or what would be that component over there?
Yes. So out of that, income tax refund was around INR280.7 crores.