Bank of India Ltd (NSE: BANKINDIA) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 21, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Gaurav Girdhar — Investor Relations, Concept PR
Rajneesh Karnatak — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
P R Rajagopal — Executive Director
Analysts:
Sushil Choksey — Analyst
Ashok Ajmera — Analyst
Rohit Shinde — Analyst
Sharath Chandra — Analyst
Aditya Mundra — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Jiten Ajmera — Analyst
Presentation:
Gaurav Girdhar — Investor Relations, Concept PR
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Gaurav Girdhar from ConceptPR. On behalf of Bank of India, I extend a warm welcome to all the esteemed analysts who have joined us today in person as well as those who have joined us virtually from different cities across India. We are pleased to announce Bank of India’s financial results for Q3 FY ’26. I would like to now introduce the management of Bank of India who have joined us for today’s analyst meet.
Shri Rajneesh Karnatak, M.D. and CEO; Shri P R Rajagopal, Executive Director; Shri Subrat Kumar, Executive Director; Shri Rajiv Mishra, Executive Director; and Shri Pramod Kumar Dwibedi, Executive Director. We will now begin the analyst briefing. To start, I would now like to invite Shri Rajneesh Karnatak sir to address this gathering. After which we will open open the floor for Q&A.
Sir, over to you. Thank you.
Rajneesh Karnatak — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Thank you so much. So ladies and gentlemen, good evening and a very happy New Year to all of you. As I share with you the financial results of the Bank for Q3 FY ’26, it is my pleasure to welcome each one of you to the today’s analyst meet. Thank you for joining here. As we step into 2026, calendar year 2025 stands behind us as a year marked by significant global uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, global GDP growth is expected to moderate to 2.6% as per the latest World Bank estimates. For India, the year has been one of resilience and opportunity.
Despite the global headwinds, India has become — has around world’s fourth largest economy surpassing Japan. Supported by targeted policy measures for exporters, GST rationalization and an expanding network of trade agreements. India has steadily strengthened its global competitiveness, reflecting this momentum, the World Bank and RBI have projected India’s full year GDP growth at a robust 7.2% and 7.3%, respectively. The RBI has adopted proactive stance by implementing the rate cuts and reducing the CRR thereby ensuring adequate liquidity in the financial system.
Key regulatory initiatives, including the proposed adoption of the Expected Credit Loss Framework, proposal for implementation of the revised Basel III capital adequacy norms and the transition to a risk-based deposit insurance premium are aimed at further strengthening resilience, improving risk management and enhancing the competitiveness of the India’s banking sector. We are pursuing a calibrated approach to credit growth. Bank continues to invest in its IT infrastructure and strategic partnerships towards improving operational efficiency and delivering a superior customer experience. This balanced emphasis on business growth and assurance will support consistent profitability and reinforce resilience in the evolving environment.
My speech will be in three parts. The the first part being the various initiatives that the Bank has taken during the quarter. The second part would be the business numbers and the third part would be the profitability and the asset quality. As regards the various initiatives that we have taken, the Bank has implemented the CTS Continuous Clearing which is now live and facilitates faster and near real-time check clearing for all our customers. The second initiative is with respect to the introduction of the BOI Surya Shakti Scheme wherein financing a scheme for agriculture sector farmers and agri entrepreneurs is there for the solar irrigation system, solar cold storage and food and agro processing, etc.
The third initiative is that the Bank has introduced a bouquet of products designed for the gig workers. These include the number one, the Gig Grow Loan which is like a MSME loan to the gig workers. The second is the Gig Gear Up Loan which is like a retail loan to the gig workers which is in form of a personal loan or a vehicle loan, that kind of thing. The fourth product that we have introduced is with respect to the introduction of two new credit card variants. One is the Celestia Credit Card which is a Rupay Platinum Contactless metal card with a single block multiple debit card feature. This card is designed for higher net worth individuals and with elevated experience and superior services. The second thing within the card is the Rupay Women’s Credit Card. This is again a credit card designed for women with product features exclusively catering to the woman’s needs.
So the next initiative that we have taken during the quarter is the BOI CSR Trust which is the Bank of India Corporate Social Responsibility Trust which the Bank has partnered as our Social Foundation Trust for our both CSR activities whether they are internal or external CSR activities. So the second part of this speech is with respect to the business numbers. Here I would like to say that the first one being the global business has grown by nearly 12.54% on a Y-o-Y basis from 14.46 lakh crores in December ’24 to 16.27 lakh crores in December ’25 with an incremental growth of nearly INR1,81,000 crores.
Global advances of the Bank have increased by 13.63% on a Y-o-Y basis from 6.51 lakh crores in December ’24 to 7.40 lakh crores in December ’25 with an incremental growth of nearly INR88,000 crores. Global deposits of the Bank have also increased by 11.64% on a Y-o-Y basis from 7.94 lakh crores in December ’24 to 8.87 lakh crores in December ’25 with the incremental growth of nearly INR92,000 crores. Domestic gross advances have increased by 15.16% on a Y-o-Y basis from 5.46 lakh crores in December ’24 to 6.29 lakh crores in December ’25.
RAMN advances which is retail, agriculture and MSME advances, they have also increased by 18.05% on a Y-o-Y basis from 3.12 lakh crores in December ’25 to 3.65 lakh crores as on December ’25 as against December ’24 number of 3.12 lakh crores constituting nearly 58.54% of the total domestic book which is there. As regards the domestic deposits are concerned, they have increased by 12.8% on a Y-o-Y basis from 6.79 lakh crores in December ’24 to 7.65 lakh crores in December ’25. CASA has also increased on a Y-o-Y basis from 2.77 lakh crores in December ’24 to 2.90 lakh crores with an incremental growth of nearly INR12,000 crore plus in December ’25 and the CASA ratio has stood at 37.97%.
As regards the third part which is the profitability and the asset quality of the Bank, operating profit has increased by nearly 13% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR4,193 crores for Q3 FY ’26 as against INR3,703 crores in Q3 FY ’25. Net profit has increased by nearly 7% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR2,705 crores in Q3 FY ’26 as against INR2,517 crores in Q3 FY ’25. Net interest income has also increased by nearly 6% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR6,461 crores for Q3 FY ’26 as against INR6,070 crores in Q3 FY ’25. Global NIM, sequentially has improved by 16 basis point and stood at 2.57% in Q3 FY ’26.
Non-interest income has also increased by nearly 30% on a Y-o-Y basis and stands at INR2,200 crore plus as on Q3 as against INR1,700 crore plus in Q3 FY ’25. Slippage ratio has stood at 0.16% in Q3 FY ’26 as against 0.19% in Q3 FY ’25. As far as the credit cost is concerned it has improved to 0.34% in FY ’26 as against 0.39% in FY ’25. There has been improvement in the asset quality also with reduction in both gross NPA ratio and the net NPA ratio with the GNPA ratio improving by 143 basis points to 2.26% for Q3 and net NPA ratio also improving by 25 basis points to 0.60% in Q3 of FY ’26. As far as the PCR is concerned it has improved to 93.60% in December ’25 as against 92.46% is on December ’24. As on December ’25 Bank’s CRAR has improved to 17.09% from 16% as on 31st December 2024.
Now to conclude, I would say that in tune with the growth of the global economy and the Indian economy the guidance for global advances growth would be at around 13% to 14% and the global deposit growth would be at around 11% to 12% for FY ’26. The key priority of the bank will be mobilizing low cost deposits, accelerate the growth of high yielding advances thereby safeguarding the net interest margin. Our concerted efforts will focus on prudent credit underwriting and strengthen the asset quality and contain the fresh slippages. The Bank remains fully committed to enhancing the operational efficiency and profitability while maintaining the rigorous compliance standard and robust corporate governance. Together, these initiatives will ensure the creation of a sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
I would like to thank you all for your continued support. The floor is now open for questions-and-answers and thank you for coming here. Thank you so much.
Questions and Answers:
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you sir. That was very informative. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Before we proceed, we would like to request you to kindly raise your hands and introduce yourself and your organization. Our representatives will hand over a mic to you. For subsequent questions, for online participants, I would request you to raise your hands and and type in your questions in the chat box. My colleague will take your questions. Thank you. Any questions?
The gentleman over here.
Sushil Choksey
Congratulations to team Bank of India for excellent numbers and performance exceeding your guidance.
Gaurav Girdhar
Sir, if you could please introduce yourself.
Sushil Choksey
My name is Sushil Choksey from Indus Equity. Do you expect higher growth than what you are guiding or you just want to be conservative?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So as far as the growth is concerned, see if you see our numbers as far as the overall growth is concerned, we have been growing our global business at around 12% and if you see within that the credit growth has been at around 13% plus on a Y-o-Y basis and deposit growth has been at around 11% on a Y-o-Y basis. If you see the domestic numbers the credit growth has been as good as 15% plus on the domestic advances side and within that if I give you a color of the RAM advances there, we have grown at around 18% on the RAM growth within that retail has grown at around 20% and agriculture has grown at around 16% and MSME has grown at around 15%. So — and the corporate book also has grown at in this time trying times also still at double digit at around 11%. So with the kind of pipeline that we are having as far as the credit is concerned, of nearly INR80,000 crore of pipeline of which the corporate pipeline is around INR65,000 crores which will help us grow in credit in the Q4 and the Q1 of the next financial year, we are very confident that the growth numbers will be much better for the next financial year than what we are showing at this present time.
Sushil Choksey
And the INR65,000 crores is the pipeline for Q4 and what is unavailed credit as of today sanctioned?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So this INR65,000 crore corporate pipeline includes see the in-principle approvals that we have given, the sanctions that we have given which are yet to get into documentation stage. And third is the stage wherein the sanctions have been given, documentation has taken place and drawdown will take place as per the disbursement schedules. So INR65,000 crore will not get disbursed in this quarter itself, but it will be getting disbursed in the next six months. So as I said in the Q4 of FY ’26 and Q1 of FY ’27.
Sushil Choksey
Sir, as you said in your opening remark that you have shredded some low yielding advances and you’re looking for better yield advances, does it mean that we have shredded low yielding advances? I may name them, you may not. NABARD, SIDBI, some housing, finance, government-owned companies or entities which are fetching only 6% or 6.25% for yearly advances.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, so that is the basic idea. So we have churned our portfolio, we have scanned our portfolio and what we saw that among the low yielding advances which were external lending based repo raised linked advances, typically AAA PSUs and other kinds of things where the yields are less that we have now churned and gone into other advances where the returns were much better. The yields were better. I will not say it was very high, but definitely from that number it was more by around 25 basis point, 30 basis point, 40 basis point. So that kind of churning we have done in our portfolio that has helped us improve the margin. So overall if you see the global name also for the Bank, it has improved from a number of 2.45% in September ’25 to a number of 2.67% as on 5%,7% as on December.
Sushil Choksey
The flavor in the stock market is PSU bank. And if I see the results which are so far declared, RAM is a highlight across all banks. Do you think RAM will sustain in 2026? I’m not only saying about the current quarter, but looking at housing market, retail loans, car loans, some may be having a good yield, some may be poor compared to market. How do you see that panning out over the period of ’26?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So as far as the RAM book is concerned, we are very much positive and buoyant as far as the RAM book is concerned. And we feel that from the top management side that if FY ’27 also will give a very good RAM growth. For the simple reason, the way the economy is growing, Indian economy is growing, the way the income levels are growing both in the cities and also in the agriculture side. And not much impact of the monsoon and other kinds of things are there now in the country and we have not seen a drought for quite a number of years. And agriculture incomes are quite stable now.
Keeping all these things in mind, we feel that the RAM growth will be a very important growth number for the all the banks, the entire ecosystem. Particularly with the respect to the change in definition in the MSME which has happened wherein medium enterprises are now collated as turnover up to INR500 crore with a plant and machinery of INR125 crores. Typically you can give a loan to a medium enterprise with the back of the envelope calculation of around INR200 crores, INR100 crores working capital and INR100 crore term loan. With that kind of number coming, definitely the overall RAM book should be growing with the change in definitions and the economy activity which is going. And for the banks also, I can speak for my bank, for Bank of India, for agriculture also we have changed our strategy. Rather than traditional agriculture wherein we used to go for tractors and KCC, we are going for allied agriculture and other kinds of things. Food processing, where we feel that the asset quality is much better, margins are much better and definitely there is a lot of scope in that kind of category.
Sushil Choksey
Sir, just a color on two, three parameters One is digital spend, human resources bank is getting better on TAT and many other aspects. So what are you likely to do and what we have already done. Third is color on gold loans between the segregate as per RBI definition.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So as far as the color in the gold loan is concerned, we have a book of around INR47,000 crores in gold loan as on 31st December. So if I give you share with you the numbers. So the NPA amount is around INR70 crores, INR75 crores only. So that is the kind of figure which is there as far as NPA is concerned and that is on the date of 31st December. Normally typically our SOP is that once the account of the gold becomes NPA it has to be like sold in the market. After giving the notice to the borrower we have to sell it in the market and normally this money comes back within 30 days of the account becoming NPA. So very less NPA is there. There is no threat of asset quality and the return in the gold loan just to give you a sense is around 9% yield on the such advances because the very less NPA is there.
Sushil Choksey
Sir, I don’t think the gold NPA is a kind of a worry in today’s market scenario for anybody. So if you go aggressive, nobody is going to bother about it unless you lend at 100% of the value. So 75% is fine.
Rajneesh Karnatak
So they are — that’s a very good point. See because of the rising gold prices and the commodity prices which are there. So we have increased our guardrails also in the loan. We are very much concerned that the way the portfolio is growing and the way the prices of gold are growing, definitely it may pose a risk particularly with respect to the valuations which are there on the metal. So what we have done is we have reduced the loan to value to 75% now. So any fresh advances in the gold loan category we are keeping a margin of 25% as against earlier of 10% or 15%.
Sushil Choksey
Thank you for answering all my questions and best luck.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Thank you.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you, sir. We have the next question from our online participants. What is the management’s outlook for personal vehicle and gold loan books going forward as personal loans grew by 5.3%. And vehicles loans…
Ashok Ajmera
Hello? Can I — I have been taken from online. I Am Ashok Ajmera, Chairman Ajcon Global. I have been unmuted for online invite.
Gaurav Girdhar
Please go ahead, sir. Thank you.
Ashok Ajmera
My compliments to you sir for the all round growth in this quarter. In fact you are probably among very few banks where the growth is very balanced. If you look at the this quarterly growth around 4% for deposit, credit as well as overall business. So which is a very good sign that you are growing your deposit also as you are growing your credit like portfolio also. So that’s my and profitability is also improved, operating profit is good, net profit is good. So my compliments to the entire team of Bank of India, sir. I couldn’t join you there because of some traffic issues. But I am here online and I got certain observations, some clarification to be sought and some information. Sir, this time of SMA2 converse overall SMA figure has gone down. But SMA2 is almost double from [Indecipherable]. So it is because of that some government one or two accounts or and what is the breakup of this like corporate entity.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, so thank you so much Ajmeraji. So as you rightly said that yes we have improved the overall SMA book for us. So if you see the numbers we were at around INR6,500 crores in above INR5 crores SMA as on September, it has come down to now INR5,400 crores only. And it is only 0.75% of our standard loan book. As regards the SMA2 number is there. As we have already presented that majority of that in the SMA2 category is our three state government accounts which are there which are backed by the state government guarantee also which have rolled over from SMA1 or SMA0 to the SMA2 category. But nonetheless we are monitoring these advances and we are hoping that there will not be any delinquency in these accounts. But otherwise if you see the number that our both, whether it is retail SMA, whether it is agriculture SMA or the MSME SMA is quite muted and on a lower side. The major portion of the overall SMA INR5,400 crore out of which around INR3,500 crore is compromising of these three accounts only. Thank you.
Rohit Shinde
Yeah, good evening sir. On the right.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah.
Rohit Shinde
Good evening. Sir, my name is Rohit Shinde. I’m from Market Memories. My question is sir, regarding Bank of India Shakti scheme and Bank of India gig workers loan. You have just launched it recently. So I just — can you just throw some color on this? Because Shakti is for the agriculture and gig workers is for those particular loan. So can you throw some color on the ticket size, the tenure of the loan and what will be the interest percentage.
Rajneesh Karnatak
So Patakji, will you be able to take that — this one?
P R Rajagopal
Yeah. This gig worker in fact I mean it is for, as you mentioned in your speech it is for on retail side for individuals and small enterprises on SME side. And typically rate of interest is between 9.5% to 10.5%. That is the kind of loan rate of interest we have kept it there too. And farm mechanization we have launched that agri Shakti scheme.
Rohit Shinde
And what is the rate of interest for the farm workers?
P R Rajagopal
Yeah, so again it is, I mean we have kept minimum CIBIL score beyond below which we don’t give and rate of interest is 9%.
Rohit Shinde
And what would be the ticket size? Minimum and maximum for both.
P R Rajagopal
So farm mechanization especially we get good amount of some harvesters also it goes even up to, I mean 35, 50 lakh also. But it starts I can say somewhere around 4 or 5 lakh, up to 50 lakh. But those high ticket are very, very, I mean less in number.
Rohit Shinde
And for the gig workers.
P R Rajagopal
Gig workers I mean, okay, we have recently launched the project. For individual side it is only up to 2 lakh and on SME side it is up to 5 lakh.
Rohit Shinde
And what will be the tenure of these loans approximately?
P R Rajagopal
Typically I mean two years to five.
Rohit Shinde
For a farm or gig.
P R Rajagopal
For farm it is up to five years.
Rohit Shinde
Okay. And gig, two years.
P R Rajagopal
Yeah. No gig also two to five years depending on, okay, what is the repayment capacity.
Rohit Shinde
And what would be the net interest margin for this bank will be expecting?
P R Rajagopal
So okay, I mean now you can, I mean generally we are giving at around 10% and our cost of fund is around 5%. So that’s the margin we are keeping.
Rohit Shinde
5% NII. And how much, how many accounts are expecting to — how many people expecting to lend in this? Can you throw color on this in the first…
P R Rajagopal
So gig side it will be very, very, I can say it will be small, volume wise it is not, we are not expecting much big number. But on SMS especially on Sakti side, I mean close to INR500 crore to INR1,000 crore kind of book we are looking for.
Rohit Shinde
Okay. And gig, what do gig book size?
P R Rajagopal
That will be very small I think fact.
Rohit Shinde
Okay. Thank you very much.
P R Rajagopal
Thank you.
Gaurav Girdhar
Than you, sir.
Sharath Chandra
This is Sharath Chandra, investment advisor. Sir. I wanted to know whether the competitive environment is increasing in the banking space. Because your CASA deposit in a time frame of 12 months has come down from 41% to 38%. And you have covered that up with the bulk deposits from 13.5% to 15.5%. So that is one part. The second part is the yield on advances has come down by 80 basis points in the nine month time horizon and the NIMs have come down by 40 basis points in the nine month time horizon. So both on the deposit side and both on the lending side, there seem to be pressure on the bank. Is it because of the general environment or is it because of increased competitive intensity in the banking space?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, thank you so much. So your question has basically two parts to address. One is the liability side and the other is the asset side, the yields on the asset side. So as far as the liability side is concerned, see there is a transformational shift, structural shift which is happening on the deposit side across the system. So what we are seeing is that the CASA deposits in across all banks were, whether it is private sector banks, foreign banks, public sector banks, small finance banks, is coming to, lowering, down, getting down and the delta which is getting created out of the CASA deposits is on a lower side.
So if you see our numbers also, the increase in CASA has been only around INR12,000 crores on a Y-o-Y basis. In percentage terms it’s also low as you rightly observed also our CASA percentage to total deposit has also come down to now near to 38% only and within that. But what I would like to show tell over here is that Bank of India as a franchise with around 5,400 branches with INR37,000 crore touch points for our customers, we’ve been able to monitor and maintain our cost of deposits to a large extent which has also resulted in improvement in the NIMs by nearly 16 basis point in on a sequential quarter from 2.41% to 2.57%. So our bulk deposit is now only 15% though it has also increased, but it is only 15% which means that 85% of our domestic deposit is either CASA deposit or retail term deposits.
Within that, if I give you the color, our retail term deposits have grown by nearly 14% on a Y-o-Y basis. Now what is retail term deposit? Retail term deposit as per the definition of RBI is any deposit which is up to INR3 crores. So that is a deposit which is cheaper for us and definitely we want more spread out deposit because in that situation the outgo of deposit does not take place. So that is the kind of thing which is there. But definitely there is a pressure on the deposit. But as I said in answering the previous question that since we are growing our credit, global credit by 13% plus, our domestic credit by more than 15% plus, it is very important for us to grow our deposits also. So if the CASA is not growing because of the structural issues which are there in the economy today. In the sense that the depositors which are there now, they are not keeping the deposits idle with the banks either in current account or saving deposits.
Now they are parking their deposits in various investment avenues, wealth management products which are available to them. Whether it is a real estate, whether it is a metal like gold or a silver, whether it is a equity market, mutual funds, pension funds, NPS or insurance, life insurance. So with all these kinds of investment opportunities available, with the growth in economy and the financial literacy which is taking place now, this will continue to happen. And there will be in the coming future, which we see from the top management side, Bank of India, that there will be a pressure on the CASA definitely for the entire banking system. And banks will have to search other avenues like particularly more retail term deposits, more of bulk deposits to compensate the the the growth of CASA which is not happening to match the credit growth which is happening. So that is what we are trying to do and this is what we have been successful also in doing so. So bulk deposit is only 15% remaining remains CASA and retail term deposits.
As regards the other part is concerned on the loan book side there, yes, we have been able to improve our yield on advances. Though you rightly say, rightly observed that the yield on advances have come down from December ’24 to December ’25 for the simple reason that if you see our book, 64% of our book is linked to the EBLR advances which are the repo rate advances and repo rate which you, which you are aware that it has come by, come down by nearly 125 basis point in the calendar year 2025 itself. The rate cut started in February ’25 and it was there up to the 5th December ’25 when the RBI brought down another 25 basis points. So 125 basis point has been shaved off from that side.
Since 64% of our book bank of India book is on the repo side, immediate transmission of the rate happens. So MCLR it takes time, but repo rate immediate it happens. That is why the yield on advances has come down. But nonetheless, if you see our numbers, our yield on advances have improved from September to December quarter and we have been able to churn our credit portfolio as I said earlier, that we have been able to shed some of our very low yielding advances and got it replaced with certain advances of AA and other categories which are giving 20 basis point, 30 basis point, 40 basis point higher. So it’s a conscious strategy we are adopting at the bank level level that we want to improve our RAM advances to improve the yield, we want to improve increase our MCLR advances to improve the net interest margins. And also we want to have a portfolio of more of AA advances. So that because the yield in AAA advances is very less. So this is how we’ll try to protect our like, reduce our cost of deposits, increase our yield on advances and protect the NIMs going forward.
Sharath Chandra
What is the differential between the bulk deposit and the retail term deposit rates? Is there a differential?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So, so it cannot be — it cannot be given in one number. But let me share you with you the data. So when we are taking bulk deposits it also depends on the kind of liquidity we want. So the bulk deposit rates are different for the amount and the maturity, right? So if I need a INR50 crore deposit for one month or a INR500 crore deposit for one month, the rates will be different. Totally different. Similarly, if we need a INR500 crore deposit for six months, the rate will be different or a INR50 crore deposit for six months, the rate will be different.
So the for the bulk deposit many times it is the negotiation which takes place at the field level with the various depositors. Many of them are central government entities, some are state government entities, some are central PSU, some are state PSUs and some of them are also corporates. And many of them these days because lot of money is flowing into mutual fund and insurance company some of the deposits is also coming from the mutual funds and insurance companies also. So it’s a bargain which happens as far as the negotiation which happens in the bulk deposit rate. But definitely it cannot be like ascribed that one rocket hits.
Sharath Chandra
Like in the term deposit, retail term deposit, you must be having a weighted average cost of retail term deposit. So similarly for the bulk deposits the weighted average cost would be what 1% more than the retail term deposits.
Rajneesh Karnatak
No, no, it’s not that. But what I can say is yes, the cost of deposit of retail term deposit weighted average is higher than the weighted average for the bulk deposit for the simple reason that the weighted average for the bulk deposit is where there is lot of short term deposit also available with us for 15 days also. Sometimes even we take for seven days also that kind of deposit. We want immediate dispersal of say to some PSU happening for INR2,000 crores, INR3,000 crore next day we take a seven day deposit also from some government entity for seven days. So, but yes, the difference between there is the retail term deposit weighted average is bit higher than the bulk deposit.
Sharath Chandra
Thank you very much and all the best.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you, sir. Next question is from our online participant Mr. Ajmera. Sir, please go ahead. Thank you.
Ashok Ajmera
Yes sir, I was immediately muted after my first question only which you answered. Sir, there is a little increase in the fresh slippages in this quarter. So, what is the reason and going forward are we going to keep the slippages under control and what is the total recovery target for FY ’26 from the recovery from the written off account and what is the outstanding written off book and what is the overall recovery target for FY ’26 vis-a-vis the slippages?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. Thank you so much. As far as the fresh slippages are concerned, see the fresh slippages have increased by nearly INR200 crores in this quarter. So last quarter it was around INR910 crores. So this time it is around INR1,100 crores. One of the main reason is that there was one corporate road account which slipped into NPA that is the reason it’s a consortium account. It is there with other lenders also. Because of that slippage the incremental delta has been at around INR200 crores. But as far as the slippage ratio is concerned so we are quite comfortable. Though slippage ratio has increased by a couple of basis points from the previous quarter. But if you compare it to December ’24 to December ’25 the slippage ratio in fact has come down from 0.19% to 0.16%.
So as far as the SMA book is concerned to just to give you a color over there, there also we — our SMA overall SMA number INR5 crore and above if you see the presentation SMA number in amount terms has been reduced from INR6,500 crore to INR5,400 crores and it is only 0.75%. So in this quarter also we do not see any further deterioration in the asset quality and we will be able to hold the run rate on the slippage side. As regards the recovery is concerned there in the recovery we have already done a recovery. If you see the presentation nine-month recovery at around INR5,300 crores, total recovery in the 9 months and we expect that our recovery should be for this quarter should be also at somewhere around INR2,000 crores in the Q4 quarter. So we should be ending at around somewhere around INR7,200 crores, INR7,300 crores of total recovery during the 12 months.
As regards the return of accounts are concerned. So we have a book of around INR50,000 crores on the return of accounts. Our run rate presently is at around INR400 crores, INR450 crores per quarter. That translates to around INR1,800 crores per annum. So there internally on the top management side we are targeting that we should have a number of around INR750 crores per quarter which would translate to a number of around INR3,000 crore in the next four quarters on the return of account recovery. Thank you.
Ashok Ajmera
About 6 % of the total written off accounts. And sir, will you give some color on our IT, activity and the digital budget and the product which we have launched, you know, with a big delivery which we have given, there were some initial hiccups. So, what is the status of the overall digital growth of the Bank and the future plans for going forward in this area?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, so a lot of initiatives bank has taken as far as the digital initiatives are concerned, not only on the IT but also on digital digital side and also on the cybersecurity side. So as far as the business numbers are concerned, if you can see the presentation already 29 journeys are live. As far as the business journeys are concerned, out of that around 24 journeys are on the loan side and five journeys are from the liability side. In this quarter also there will be quite a few journeys which we will go live. As far as the — whether it is the loan journeys, whether it is the liability journeys and some of the journeys also on the wealth management side.
As far as the transformation project which is going on within the bank for IT digital and cybersecurity, there also lot of automation we are trying to do in many of our processes, particularly on the credit side where the sanctions are concerned and also on the monitoring and control side, whether it is transaction monitoring and other kinds of things. If you see the presentation, lot of customization and optimization has happened over there. And we have been able to save a lot of number of man hours also under this automation things as far as the back offices activities are concerned. So around 50,000 man hours we have saved during the nine months over the because of the automation and this kind of thing that we have done. And this journey will continue to improve further. That is what is the understanding for us.
Apart from that we have another very important project which we have Project Star Aditya which is for the data lake project which is artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative AI. There also lot of use cases have already started flowing to our verticals, to the branches, to our zonal offices, even to the underwriting centers, there we are going for not only for the business side leads and the actual underwriting which is happening, but also from the control side transaction monitoring alerts are going, early warning system alerts are going. And even for the underwriting underwriting centers there is lot of alerts which are going for the ecosystem alerts which are there while the credit underwriting is taking place.
And with the kind of emphasis that we are giving on IT now and just to give you a sense, I may tell you that the kind of money we are investing in IT, out of the total operating expenses which are there, nearly 10% of the opex is going to the IT opex. So that kind of significant money we are spending on IT. Apart from that there is a capex also which we are spending on the IT side. So management is clearly into the IT system and we want the experience of the customers to improve through digital journeys and also improve our system and procedures as far as the cybersecurity stack is concerned. Thank you.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you, sir.
Aditya Mundra
Thank you, sir. This is Aditya Mundra from My Temple capital. Sir, I have two to three queries. Sir, our RAM to wholesale ratio is approximately 50/50. And what is our target in terms of that? Because from my compared to a pure banks I think they are targeting more 60/40 and they are maybe at 65/35 if not more. And does that play a role in our NIM plans? Like how. What is our roadmap to take our NIM above 3% let’s say and. And an extension of that query what is our plan for our international advances? Like how much percentage of that international launches will be part of our book. I have more questions. I’ll come back on that.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Okay. So as far as the first question on RAM is concerned see present our RAM book is at around 58.4%. Right. So as far as our future plans are concerned we have a approved strategy of the Board for Bank of India at 125. So we are 120 year old organization. Five year hence we would be 125 year old. So at that time we say that we our total business should be at around INR31 lakh crores. Within that number, within the credit number the RAM book should be at around 65% and 35% has to be corporate. For the simple reason that we believe that it will be our diversification of advances.
If we go to the RAM book number one, credit risk gets spread number one. And number two is the fact that the better margins are available as far as the RAM book are concerned. So we have a clear understanding within the bank that we need to grow the RAM book. Definitely as I already said that MSME definition now with the change in definition there is huge scope for increasing the MSME book. So RAM book will definitely grow in the bank. And we are very conscious and we want that the the better yielding advances are there in the RAM and the NIMs will also improve because of that.
As far as the color into the international book is concerned. See if you see the book presently as on 31st December if you see the global advances of INR7,40,000 crores nearly INR1,10,000 crores are contributed by the international advances and it is 15% of the book. And if you see our just to give a sense on by BOI at 125 at 2031 how the international book would be again we are saying over there that our international book should be at around 15% to 16% of the global book on the advances side. So we will be growing both our international book, simultaneously our domestic book on the credit side. So what we feel today is because of the various geopolitical issues which are there definitely there is some some slowness as far as the international advances are concerned. We are also very cautious about entering into new overseas accounts particularly though we are giving to Indian corporates but to overseas corporates we are very watchful and watching the situation and the global political issues which are panning out.
Aditya Mundra
So any any target for the NIM on the BOI 125 plan?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So NIM cannot be a target at BOI 125 at this juncture when the situation is so volatile and the repo rate cut has been there and other issues are there as far as the global environment is there. But definitely for the immediate run I could say I would say that for FY ’26 though we are at 2.57% as on 31st December. For the annualized FY ’26 we hope that we should be maintaining a NIM of around 2.50% and for the Q4 we should be somewhere around 2.60%.
Aditya Mundra
And sir what will be our branch expansion plans in terms of number as well as geography that you are focusing on? Is it different from where we are already present? What is our strategy for that around that?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So already we have a Board approved strategy as far as our branch expansion is concerned. So in FY ’25 we opened nearly 211 branches exactly 211 branches in FY ’25. This year again we have a Board approval of around 200 branches. Already 145 plus branches we have opened. The remaining 50, 55 branches we will be opening in this quarter itself. So they are in the final pipeline of opening going live as far as the opening of those branches are concerned. So in the next year also for FY ’27 also the Board has given approval for 200 more branches. So 600 branches will be opened in the three years FY ’24, ’25 and ’25, ’26 and ’27. So that is one part. Second part is that we have 13 FGM offices under which there are 16 zones pan-India. So we are agnostic to any particular geography north, south, east, west or central. So all these 600 branches are getting opened in across pan-India and in each of these states.
Aditya Mundra
But there would be some…
Gaurav Girdhar
Aditya, I would request you to please come in the queue.
Aditya Mundra
I’ll come back, sir.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you. Well just one last question from one participant and we’ll conclude.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hello. Yeah. Sir, last quarter you indicated that the impact of ECL would be around INR4,700 crores. And you also indicated that you would be deciding on how, how and when you would be taking the hit on the P&L. So any update on the same?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So yeah. So ECL is a work in progress frankly speaking because the draft guidelines of RBI are already out. We have done the calculation as far as the present numbers which are concerned. So we feel that the ECL impact should be at around 2% on our CRAR. So if you see our CRAR is at around 17.09%. 1% of this translates to around INR4,600 crores to INR4,700 crores. So the overall number would be coming the two times of around that INR4,700 crores within the INR10,000 crore number. But if I give you a sense since it has to be spread across the next five years so the impact would be at around 0.40% only per annum on the CRAR side. And if you see the profitability which the bank is having around INR7,500 crore of net profit in the nine months which should and with this going run rate we should be having a profitability of say around INR10,000 crore in this financial itself. So there should not be any impact on the CRAR with this kind of number. Thank you.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you, sir.
Jiten Ajmera
Jiten from Ajmera. So what do you see the interest rates trajectory going forward and which sectors like you can further improve the slippages within the coming quarters.
Rajneesh Karnatak
So interest rate trajectory presently though we don’t see any rate cut coming. Already 125 basis rate cut has happened in the calendar year 2025. And with the kind of geopolitical situation and the kind of metal price prices the way they are going, we feel that in the immediate we don’t see any cut coming immediately. So but nonetheless in the medium term we cannot say after six months what would happen. But we feel that it should be playing around at that number only and we would be reducing our cost of deposit with the fact that most of our term deposits are getting repriced and at a lower rate of interest because we have cut the deposit rates both in the saving account and also in the fixed deposits. So there we feel that our cost of deposits overall should be coming down.
As regards the second part was with respect…
Jiten Ajmera
Which sectors you see the improvement in slippages further.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Slippages. See slippages if you see our numbers, most the slippages are mostly into the MSME and agriculture and some of the slippages which are happening in the retail. So corporate we do not feel see any slippages. This is a one of slippage which has happened in this quarter. It was a stress road asset which was there in the books of the bank of other banks also for the last 18 months. So it has slipped. In corporate we do not see any slippages happening. But there will be some routine slippages which happened in retail, agriculture and MSME. But I don’t think there should be any worry on that.
Jiten Ajmera
Thank you.
Gaurav Girdhar
Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This was the last question for the session. Thank you for your in-depth questions. Thank you, Rajneesh Karnatak sir and the Bank of India’s management team. We will now conclude the conference. Thank you. Have a good day.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming.