Bank of India Ltd (NSE: BANKINDIA) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 09, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Rajneesh Karnatak — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
B. Kumar — Chief Financial Officer
Unidentified Speaker
Analysts:
Ashok Ajmera — Analyst
Arjun Bagga — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Niteen Dharmawat — Analyst
Ashlesh Sonje — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
[Starts Abruptly] analysts who have joined us today in this auditorium as well as those who have joined virtually from different cities across India. We are pleased to announce Bank of India’s financial results for Q4 FY ’25. As you all can see, our top management are represented by our Managing Director, and all our Executive Directors, Shri PR Raj, Shri Subrat Kumar and Shri Mishra, all have joined the stage. Thank you all gentlemen for joining us. We will now begin this analyst briefing. To start with, I’d like to invite Shri Rajnish, R&D, sir, to please address this gathering, after which we will be taking on the question-and-answer session. Thank you.
Rajneesh Karnatak — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to today’s Analyst Meet, both physically and virtually. I’m told that there are certain analysts who are there virtually also, correct madam? Virtually also some are there, no. Yeah. As I share with you the financial results of the bank for Q4 FY ’25 as well as for the full-year FY 2025, it is my pleasure to welcome each one of you for the interaction today. Thank you for joining us in-spite of your busy schedules. While we continue to brace ourselves for the global trade dynamics and the recent tariff measures and the geopolitical tension comes as a pressure on-demand, moderating consumer sentiments and reversing market trends. However, IMF growth projections of 6.2% and India’s GDP, rising forex reserves, record GST collections and lower inflations have given hope. The shifting of customer basis from traditional to digital natives, easy credit access, digitized financial services, dissemination are few of the many areas, which are now defining the prospects. The key focus area of our bank will be enhancing customer experience through all channels and acquisitions of new customers consistently by providing innovative and niche services. This will lead to fortification of low-cost deposits like CASA, retail term deposits for sustainable credit growth. My speech would be in four parts for this coverage today. The first part being the new initiatives that the bank has taken over the last quarter. So we have started the digital business loan for the MSME schemes, a digital product which has been rolled-out for underwriting loans up to INR1 crores in MSME space for borrowers based on the GST turnover. The second is our new scheme, Vanita has been introduced for women entrepreneurs with embedded benefits. The third is the star Yua Udhyami, which is a scheme which has been started to provide loan assistance up to INR1 crores for wrong young entrepreneurs for age up to 35 years. Green deposit scheme has also been introduced for raising green deposit funds under the scheme which will be deployed for financing of green assets. Renewable energy has also been identified as a champion sector within the bank. The second part is with respect to the IT and cybersecurity. Cybersecurity center of Excellence, we have developed the center to foster collaboration, training and continuous improvement in cyber resilience. Proactive attack surface management, which is the ASM has also been done up. It identifies unknown vulnerabilities, shadow IT and misconfigurations before attackers do so. Centralized threat intelligence platform also has been set-up. It enables automated correlation, real-time alerts and contextual threat analysis. As part of our, bank has opened 24×7 resiliency operating center, which is the ROC for quick response and recovery from disruptions of bank applications, including the CBS platform, e-platform, mobile banking applications, et-cetera, due to natural disasters, system outages, cyber-attacks, etc. The third-part is with respect to business. Here, global business of the bank has grown by 12.02% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR13.23 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR14.82 lakh crores in March ’25 with an incremental growth of nearly INR159,000 crores. Global advances of the bank have increased by 13.74% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR5.85 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR6,66,000 crores in March ’25 with an incremental growth of more than INR80,000 crores. Global deposits, they have increased by 10.65% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR7,37,000 crores in March ’24 to INR8,16,000 crores in March ’25 with an incremental growth of INR78,000 crore-plus. Domestic gross advances have increased by 14.45% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR4.92 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR5.64 lakh crores in March ’25. RAM advances have increased by a good number of 18.37% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR2.73 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR3.23 lakh crores in March ’25 constituting 57% of our total advanced book of the bank. Domestic advances have increased by 11.21% on a Y-o-Y basis from INR6.30 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR7 lakh crores in March ’25. Our CASA has increased on a Y-o-Y basis from INR2.70 lakh crores in March ’24 to INR2.80 lakh crores in March ’25 with an incremental growth of more than INR10,000 crores in March ’25 and the CASA ratio stood at a healthy number of more than 40%. Now with respect to profitability and asset quality, our operating profit has improved by 17% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at more than INR16,000 crores in FY ’25 as against INR14,000 crore-plus as on FY ’24. And in Q4 of FY ’25, it stood at INR4,885 crores, witnessing a Y-o-Y growth of 37%. Net profit has increased by 46% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR9,219 crores for FY ’25 against INR6,318 crores in FY ’24 and for Q4 FY ’25, it was at INR2,626 crores, witnessing a growth of nearly 82% in the net profit. Global NIM of the bank is now at 2.82% as against 2.97% in FY ’24. Slippage ratio stood at 1.36% in FY ’25 as against 1.58% in FY ’24. Slippage ratio was at 0.32% in Q4 of FY ’25. Credit cost has improved to 0.76% in FY ’25 as against 0.78% in FY ’24. Net interest income has increased by 6% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR24,000 crore-plus in FY ’25 as against INR23,000 crore-plus in FY ’24. In Q5, the NII stood at INR6,063 crores as against INR5,937 crore in Q4 of FY ’24. As regards the non-interest income is concerned, it has increased by 48% on a Y-o-Y basis and stood at INR8,994 crores in FY ’25 as against INR6,095 crores in FY ’24 and for Q4 FY ’25 stood at INR3,400 crore-plus witnessing a Y-o-Y growth of nearly 96% as against INR1,700 crores in Q4 of the last financial year. There has also been improvement in the asset quality in the bank in both gross NPA ratio and also the net NPA ratio. Gross NPA ratio has improved by 171 basis-points to 3.27% in FY ’25 and net NPA ratio has improved by-40 basis-points on a Y-o-Y basis to 0.82% only in FY ’25. As regards the PCR is there, the provision coverage ratio, it has improved by 92% to 92.39% in FY ’25 as against 90.59%. As on March ’25, Bank CRAR has improved to 17.77% as against 16.96% in March ’24. In tune with the growth of the global economy, the guidance for global advances growth will be at around 12% to 13%. The global deposit growth would be at around 11% to 12% for FY ’26. The key focus area will remain low-cost deposit mobilization for protecting our NIM and increasing high-yielding advances for consistent growth in business with emphasis on digital initiatives, improvement in the asset quality and arresting the fresh slippages. The endeavor of the bank will be in increasing efficiency and profitability, along with focus on compliance and better corporate governance. I would like to thank you all for your continued support. The floor is now open for discussions and questions and answers. Thank you so much.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. [Operator Instructions] Yes, Ajmera ji kindly begin. Yeah someone to pass-on the mic please.
Ashok Ajmera
I thought first is always a compliment. So let the mic be there, otherwise it will may not be hard for everyone. To you, sir for the fantastic set of numbers and really a very good results because even in this difficult times where the — there was a pressure on both deposit and credit side to most of the other banks, you have performed much better and maintained your guidance what you had given rather a little more on some of the fronts. I mean, if you talk about the asset growth side, I mean the credit side, you talk about the profitability side, everywhere the performance is fantastic. Having said that, I got just some data point and some clarifications. So as to now assess properly what is going to happen in FY ’26. So sir, one is that on the smallest thing on the credit side, credit growth, you know our personal loan have been quite good. I mean though in percentage terms, it may be small. So now with this so many checks and balances coming on the personal loans, what are your plans and what kind of loans do we have? I mean, and what is the delinquency ratio on that personal loan book of 12,000, I think 670 crores. So this is just on this. And similarly on the NBFC front, also as compared to the last quarter, we have grown by INR6,000 crores. So they are also whether they are all A-rated or we are moving down towards A or maybe I think not there much. So on that. And then on the profitability front, in order to assess the consistency, how much profit has accrued because of the revaluation of NARCL SRs, which now is permitted to be valued at the fair market value. So because that may not be available to us in the current quarter or maybe next quarter that was — that is something how much has been added to the — to the profit. And then overall on the other income side, I think it has grown it has almost doubled from INR1,747 crore to INR3,428 crore in this quarter. So whether this momentum is going to be maintained like on the recovery from written-off accounts is INR1,143 as against INR391 crore in the last quarter. Similarly, profit on the sale of the — and revaluation of the investment coming to INR711 crore as against INR266 crore. So of course, investment book of every bank is doing well. But going-forward and with this further two rate cuts which are expected, I think we should have a bumper profit, how much is going to be added to the bottom-line is some light if you can throw on that. And the last is on the — in this round is only — I mean, we are just you know, whisker away from INR15 lakh crore business. I think just — I think it may be even achieved in this April, June quarter also. So how much is the technology upgradation is — can be attributed to this growth and how far we have reached on our various models or delivery models on technology? And what kind of budget still do we have for that for further improvement and upgradation? So some color on the — on the technology side, sir. And if time permits, some information on the recovery as I had asked. Thank you, sir.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Thank you so much, Ajmera ji. Five questions you have asked. So most of the things are covered in the presentation now once I answer them. So as regards the personal loan book is concerned, you are right that the growth is more than 30%, which you see over here. But I would just like to clarify and give some data points on the personal loan book. One thing is, as I said last-time also in the last present — this analyst presentation that lot of guardrails we have already placed in the personal loan book, where the CIC score is more than 760 where we are giving only to salaried customer where we are also ensuring that the salaries coming into the Bank of India saving account, those kinds of guardrails we have already placed in such kind of loaning when we are doing that. With respect to the book is concerned, overall, as you know, the growth is 30%, right, as you rightly observed, but the base is low because of which the growth is also showing us at 30%. So our outstanding is only INR12,000 crore-plus. If you see the entire retail book of the bank, it is INR1,33,000 crore and the personal loan book is only 9% of that book, which is less than 10%. That is one point. Second is that our global loan book is INR6,66,000 crores as on March ’25. If you see the personal loan book out of that, it is less than 1%. In fact, it is — it is around one — it is at 1.8%, less than 2%. Okay. Now if you see the stress within that, our NPA in the personal loan book as on 31st March is only INR136 crore, which is only 1.10% of the personal loan book. So that is the kind of NPA which is there. Further, if I give you the color on the SMA number also within the personal loan book, SMA-1, 2, both aggregate is only INR435 crore, which in percentage terms of this book is only 3.43%. So in a way, our personal loan book is behaving very healthy. The yield is also very good. The asset quality is also as on-date is good and we are comfortable with the growth — present growth, which is happening in the personal loan book. Now coming to the next point, which is the NBFC book, again, as you rightly said that we have increased our portfolio. So our NBFC book, which was INR78,000 crore-plus as on March ’24 has increased to INR88,000 crores as on March 25 as per the presentation. So let me clarify with one data point, this INR88,000 crore constitutes three components. One is the domestic NBFC book, which is INR71,000 crore. Then there is international NBFC book, which is INR9,600 crores. And then there is a treasury book of NBFC, which is INR7,600 crores, contributing total INR88,000 crores. And this NBFC book is constituting only 13% of our global book, wherein our global advances are INR6,66,000 crores. And if I give you the color on the rating part of this entire NBFC 88,000 crore book, so A-rated and above accounts constitute 98% of the outstanding, 98% of the outstanding. So that is the color. The second thing that I would like to give on the NBFC book is with respect to — it is there in the presentation also, which is respect to the PSU and the bank backed NBFCs like PNB Housing Finance or LIC Housing Finance or CAN Housing Finance, that kind of thing. Here, if you see the total PSU and the bank backed NBFCs, total exposure is 51%, which means that only 49% of our NBFC book is to the actual NBFCs remaining is either to the PSU NBFCs or the bank-backed NBFC. So that kind of security and comfort level available is there with the bank as far as the NBFC is concerned. Now with respect to the profitability that we have taken due to the RBI circular on the NAI NARCL, that figure is at around INR350 crores. How much is that? INR350 crore, that INR100 crores. INR400 crores. How much it is Kumar? INR400 crores we have given in that, okay. Kumar, if you can say it on the mic for everyone.
B. Kumar
So it is INR397.76 crores, sir. Okay. Point number three, no stock. Yeah. Okay. 39 points.
Rajneesh Karnatak
So it is near to INR400 crores. Yeah.
Unidentified Speaker
Some of them have gone up 50-50.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Exactly. So entire money has not been taken into the P&L. It’s a 50-50 ratio which is there. As regards to what will be the future in FY ’26 on this NARCL. So there are lot of discussions within our NPA book, which we are having with NARCL for shifting these accounts to NARCL. So this year also in FY ’26, we’ll see good traction of accounts shifting into the NRCL and some booking coming under that also. So next point was with respect to the other income growth. Other income, as you rightly observed that the major components of the other income for us have been with respect to the recovery in the return of accounts. Here we have improved the recovery on a Y-o-Y basis by 61% from INR1,400 crore in FY ’24 to now INR2,300 crore in this year. And the other thing is from profit of sale of and revaluation of the investments, there the increase is more than 200% from INR628, it has gone up to INR1,800. So on the treasury front, Admirajee, we have like at the time when the interest rates were high, we have kept taken a good book with us in the treasury. So now in this falling interest-rate scenario, we are able to book profits out of that whenever we are selling. So this income is also accruing with respect to that. And return-off account again, we have a specific scheme now in the bank with respect to recovery in return of accounts and the entire bank is working on under that OTS scheme with recovery of written-off accounts. And we expect that more recoveries the same way that it has happened in FY ’25. Similarly, it will happen in FY ’26 for recovery in return of accounts. So as far as let me just something about it what particular number so — but yeah, no issue with that. See, Admiraji, at the present situation where there is so much global volatility and across-the-board issues, so we have decided that we will not be giving any guidance apart from the top-line guidance which I have already given in my speech with respect to the global deposit and the global advances. All other guidance we are keeping at a pause at present, till there is more clarity on the emerging situation, which is happening. So nonetheless, I would only say on the recovery in return of accounts, whatever the number we have given taken this year, INR2,300 crore-plus we have done that, that kind of number we would like to maintain in this financial year also. So as you are aware, being an analyst yourself, there is lot of pressure on the NIMs and margins of the bank, not only for us but the entire banking system. So as a banker from the top management side who is sitting here in the bank from Bank of India, we are very clear that in this financial year, banks only those banks will do well in financial year ’26 who do better non-interest income and who do better recoveries because margins will be under pressure as far as net interest income and net interest margins overall are concerned. So we have to concentrate as a strategy on non-interest income and also on the recovery — recoveries, not only in written-off account, but overall recoveries, so that the overall profitability of the bank improves in FY ’26. So as regards the business and technology part, you are right that technology, we have invested a lot. Last year, we had taken a budget of around INR2,100 crores, out of which we have already spent up to 31st March ’25, nearly INR1,700 crores, INR1,700 crores we have spent. And this year also, we have taken a budget in for IT, digital and cybersecurity, again of around INR2,000 crores. If I tell you the numbers which are there, so our digital loan book now has touched at around INR80,000 crores. That is another number which is now available with us. As on March ’25, our digital book is around INR80,000 crores, which is 12% of our global advances. In retail, it is at around INR27,000 crores. In aggreg, it is INR39,000 crores. This also includes the gold loans, which are sanctioning through the digital method. Only the pledge happens of gold happens in the physical way. MSME, again, INR13,000 crores of book we have already built-up over there. And as regards the journeys which are there, 22 journeys were there in the last year, which were digital. And in this financial year, we have been able to have 29 journeys on the various journey side on the IT side, which are now digital, which is there in-part of the presentation also, I can just page number 39 is there. Yeah. So if you see the presentation also, last year, we had 22 journeys. This year we are having 29 journeys and in liability side, there are five journeys which are digital. If you remove them, then 24 journeys are there in agriculture, retail and MSME. So in agriculture, we have six journeys which are digital. In retail, there are 10 journeys which are digital and MSME, there are eight journeys which are digital. All these kinds of automation and helping us in the bank in not only operational efficiency, but also reducing the cost and freeing the staff at the branch level from all these kind of mundane works which used to happen and which is now being taken care by the digital platforms, which are there and branches are now focusing more, number-one on marketing for liability and loan products, number-one. And number two, on the collection efficiency for recovering installment and other kinds of things. So we are very clear that the automation, whatever we are doing leads to finally operational efficiency in the bank and finally more income to the bank. And one more data point that I would like to give you over here is with respect to our digital thing is that we are started — we have started earning income with respect to our transactions, banking and the debit mandates, which we are taking from NBFCs and corporates and PSUs. Through that also in this financial year, we have already earned more than INR300 crores. So that is kind of income we have started getting through the automation, which we have done in the last two years. So we are very much cognizant of the fact that whatever the investment that we are making in technology from IT and digital, we get back the returns outcome by way of business and finally the other income and the incomes which come for the P&L of the bank.
Ashok Ajmera
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much, Ajmera ji. Can I have — yeah, please.
Arjun Bagga
Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Arjun from Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. So I actually wanted to check on the advances growth and guidance on that, but I do understand you are holding that back. But just on the corporate front, if you could share a little bit more on the pipeline that we have there and what is the nature of entities that are broadly looking for that and maybe is it greenfield or brownfield or how exactly is that?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So as far as the corporate credit growth is concerned, so overall, global credit growth, we have already said that it will be around 12% to 13%, that is the guidance we are giving. So as regards the pipeline is concerned, we have a pipeline as on 31st March when we speak. The pipeline is at around INR74,000 crores, which includes not only corporate, but also RAM advances. So RAM advances pipeline is around INR12,000 crores. And international and corporate book, it is around INR62,000 crore. So this INR74,000 crore constitutes around 11% of our total global loan book. So that is the kind of pipeline that we are having. And we are very confident this year we have grown at around 9%, 9.59% on a Y-o-Y basis in the corporate book. So in this financial year also, we are very much confident that we’ll be able to grow in a double-digit as far as the corporate book is concerned. So a lot of sectors we are funding, we are totally agnostic to any sector. If the promoter is good and if the entity is fine and the industry is doing fine, we are going and lending in that industry. However, I can say that there are lot of emerging segments and sectors where we are investing — we are lending, particularly with respect to data centers, with respect to warehousing facilities with respect to solar PV modules with respect to renewable energy also and battery also, battery manufacturing also now we have started funding and also EV vehicles. So these are the new emerging areas where we have started funding apart from the traditional industry, which is steel textile and all those kinds of things where normal expansions, brownfield projects are coming and we are one — either we are the sole lender or we are part of the consortium or under multiple banking. So quite good traction now Bank of India is having through our large corporate branches. Apart from that, one more data point is that we have already opened emerging corporate branches, which are now 20 in number where again we are focusing on advances up to INR250 crores. There also, we are seeing lot of and proposals have started coming and margins are also better over there. But typically for the fact that the emerging corporates typically borrow on — because they are normally BBB rated. So we are lending them on MCLR rates. So the margins are better over there. Process fee also, we are able to get better. LCBG charges are also better over there. ForEx income is also better over there. So there also we are targeting to focus on new emerging corporate clients who get added to the Bank of India portfolio.
Arjun Bagga
Got it, sir. Thank you. Well-understood. Secondly, I just wanted to check, I think the MSME and GNPAs have gone down from around some 10,000 to around 7,500. If you could share what has been this driven by — what has been driving this improvement? Is there any regional or maybe sectoral color to this?
Rajneesh Karnatak
No, I couldn’t understand the question, what was it?
Arjun Bagga
Sectoral GNPAs for MSMEs. That has I think, gone down from some 10,000 to 7,500, if my numbers are correct. So if there’s any color to that?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So sectoral GNPA in MSMEC, frankly speaking, it is a combination of two things. One is the advances which is growing in MSME book because the denominator is growing, right? So we have grown our advances in the MSME book, number-one. Number two, we have been able to curtail our SMAs in this book and the delinquencies which are there. So both the things together have contributed to the lower GNPA number in the MSME book. That is frankly the reason. Why? And lot of underwriting guardrails we have already placed in our MSME book right from sourcing of the MSME account until the underwriting which happens and till the monitoring which happens and the collection efficiency for the term loans in MSME which happens. So we have underwriting centers, more than 150 underwriting centers in the bank for MSME Advance, which we call the SMECC’s underwriting centers, where credit officers are now placed. So credit underwriting has improved, number-one. Number two, we are doing lot of DSA activities for MSME also through our one of our subsidiaries, which is Bank of India shareholding, we have got the RBI approval. So that also marketing is happening through that — our own subsidiary. Third is the collection efficiency for that we have now put zolone collection centers in our 69 zones who take care of the collection efficiencies for these MSME term loans whenever they are getting due installments. So that also good traction we are seeing so that the delinquency does not happen. So all these things together, the ring-fencing that we have done on this MSME portfolio, we are seeing a good traction not only with respect to growth, but also on the asset quality side.
Unidentified Participant
Sir, just lastly again on the asset quality front. There has been recently a judgment on this in power and steel account. Correct. With regards to that, how do we — how do we look at this NCLT and recoveries horizon changing? Would there be a material impact? And if so, how is the bank placed over there, if you could share a little bit.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yes. So specifically on this account, if I can say for Bank of India, see, we had sold this account to a ARC. So there is no impact of the judgment per se on Bank of India balance sheet and P&L. So that is one clarification that I would like to give, number-one. Number two, with respect to the judgment which has come, all the COC lenders which are there. We are not part of that, but I am told that all the lenders together are working on it and they would be filing some this review petition with the court.
Operator
Thank you very much. I’d like to take Gouri, can you just put in through Mr Adity Vikram? He has joined virtually. So there’s a question coming up virtually. Can Mr Adity Vikram yeah kindly put him through not audible.
Unidentified Participant
Sequentially and secondly, also is — can you give the write-off numbers for this particular quarter?
Operator
Aditya, the first part was not audible. Can you please repeat?
Unidentified Participant
I’ll repeat it. So sir, I see that sequential — for this particular quarter — for this particular quarter, am I audible?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, we can hear you. Yes. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
So thank you for taking my question, sir. The first part of the question was that the sequentially, the credit cost has increased this particular quarter. Can you through give some color as to why that has happened? Is this seasonal in nature?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Okay. So the first question is with respect to the credit cost. Yes, credit cost, if you see it has — if you see the year-on-year basis, see, our credit cost was 0.78 in March ’24. It has come down to 0.76 in March ’25. It has come down by 2 basis-points. Yes. However, I agree that the croredit cost has gone up on a quarterly basis, sequential-quarter basis and it has just INR0.84 crores. But overall, the credit cost has come down to 0.76% as on March 25.
Unidentified Participant
This is nothing to do any seasonal stuff, right? It has no seasonality attached to it.
Rajneesh Karnatak
No, it is not linked to any seasonality as to it because that was a normal provisioning in the NPA accounts, which has happened. And in the slippage also, if you see the slippage is there at around — our slippage ratio is also at 1.36%, that includes one lumpy PSU account, which had happened in this financial year in Q2 of this financial year. Had it not been there, both the credit cost and the slippage ratios would have been much, much better.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Aditya. Thank you very much. Next in-line virtually is Mr Nitin S. has got a volley of questions. Nitin, I request you to restrict yourselves to only two questions, please. Gori, team to put him — put on Nitin Dharmawat from Aurum Capital. He is from Aurum Capital.
Niteen Dharmawat
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible, sir? Yes. Yeah, we can hear you. Please go-ahead. Yeah. Thank you,. Congratulations on excellent set of numbers. My first question is, can you give a guidance? You said that you would like to give guidance only on the top-line, but just wanted to understand on return on assets, where do you see next year because it still remains below 1%. So that’s my first question.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Okay. That is on return on assets, right? So return on assets, if you see our numbers, our ROA was 0.70 in March ’24, which has now improved to 0.90%, right? And as far as the quarterly numbers on ROA is concerned, so we have touched the number of 0.98% in March ’25 on the ROA side. So we wanted to touch 1%, we narrowly missed that number, but nonetheless, we are well in target to that. And if you see sequentially, our ROA, it has been improving in the last four quarters and in December, it was 0.96%, now touching at 0.98%. Definitely within the top management side, we are targeting that we should touch the ROA of 1% as soon as possible and sustain it at that number in the ensuing quarters.
Niteen Dharmawat
Perfect, sir. My next question is, sir, Bank of India’s NIM appeared in MT&L default list. So can you please clarify if we have done the complete provisioning for this or not? And what are the chances of recovery over here? Because last-time we discussed about it and we mentioned that there is a possibility that this will not go into a default list, but nonetheless, it has gone. So what are the chances of recovery over there?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. For this account,, we are already NPA in this account like all other lenders in the system. And as regards the resolution is concerned, yes, lot of senior-level talks are going on with respect to this account on resolution of the asset and we are expecting that in this financial year FY ’26, some resolution in MT&L will come. And as regards the provision, we have made adequate provision as per the RBI IRAC norms for the asset.
Niteen Dharmawat
My next question is about CASA percentage. It has gone down to 40% now. So what is the trajectory you see over here?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. As regards CASA is concerned, you have rightly observed that it has gone down to 40% and we were at 43% in March ’24. As you are aware that there is lot of pressure on the resources and even more pressure on the CASA numbers. Nonetheless, we have been able to increase our CASA by nearly INR10,000 crores on a Y-o-Y basis. And as regards from the top management side, I can only say that we are very cognizant of the fact that we need to have a healthy CASA number and we would like to protect our CASA percentage at around 40% in FY ’26 also. And if you see our breakup slide on the domestic deposit, our deposit is only 13.2%, which is less than 14%, which means that 86% of our domestic deposits are either our CASA or our retail term deposits. So we would like to continue to maintain this number in this financial year also so that we are able to get deposits at a lower rate and reduce the cost of deposit thus protect our net interest income and net interest margins in FY ’26.
Niteen Dharmawat
Perfect, sir. My final question is about the corporate growth loan, which continues to be lower. You mentioned about new sectors where we are lending now. So what is the reason — any specific reason why it is lower? Do we see risk of NPAs and that is why we are not growing in that sector aggressively or there is general slowdown or lower requirements of funds by the corporates. Can you elaborate that?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So CASA, if you see our credit number and slide, you can — you have rightly observed that the growth is on a lower side compared to RAM advances, retail, agriculture and MSME, which are growing in double-digit and this one is growing at around single-digit at 9.6%, 9.7%. So — but we are very consciously trying to pace our corporate advances for the simple reason that all AAA and double rat — rated advances are asking for EVLR rates, which are external benchmark, where the yields are very less. And we want to build portfolio under this MCLR kind of lending in corporate book where the yields are better and margins are better. So it’s a conscious decision from us not to build that book to a large extent in — so that we protect our margins because AAA and AA rated corporates are giving very fine rates and that too at the EVLR-linked rates.
Operator
Thank you, Nitin. Can we have some — yes, yes, kindly continue.
Ashlesh Sonje
Hi, team. Good evening, Ashlesh from Kotak Securities. First question is, sir, on the margin front. Your yield on loans, reported number has declined by some 28 basis-points Q-o-Q. Can you explain what is the reason because we have not seen such a sharp decline in any of the peer PFC funds?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. Yeah. With respect to the — you are asking about the NIMs.
Ashlesh Sonje
Yield on loans.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yield on advances, correct. See, yield on advances, if you see on a Y-o-Y basis, they have improved. See, in FY ’24, our yield on advances were 8.38 to be exact. It has improved to 8.46% in March ’25. So it has improved by nearly, I would say, around 8 basis-points. But you are right that if you see on the quarter basis, sequentially, it has come down from 8.55% in December ’24 to 8.27 in March ’25. The simple reason for that is again because of the fact that from February onwards, the repo cut happened, you are aware. And in this Q4 itself, immediately after the repo cut our book, which is nearly 50% of our book, which is external benchmark against the repo, immediately on the next day 25 basis cut came for our book. So two months there the interest income went down by 25 basis-points straight away. So that is a simple reason why the yield on advances came down in Q4. However, in overall during the year, we were able to protect it and we were able to be at around 8.46%. Another data point that I would like to give you over here is our weighted-average lending rate for the whole year was 9.74% and our weighted-average term deposit rate, the term deposit that we have taken during the year was at 7.09%. So if you see the difference between the two, the difference is around 2.65%. So that’s a healthy difference we are trying to maintain and this does not include CASA, cost of deposit. This is only term deposit weighted-average cost. So there again, as I said that by taking more of retail term deposits, we are trying to maintain the cost of deposit at a lower side so that we are able to protect our margins. The net interest income and the NIM in the ensuing quarters.
Ashlesh Sonje
Sir, a follow-up on the yield question. Even if we — even if we account for this 25 basis-points rate cut on 50% of the loan book, that can only explain about 8, 9 basis-points of decline, but the decline which you have reported is some 28 basis-points. So correct? It seems like there might be a few other variables also.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, the variables in the sense that, see, 50% 55% of the book is the EVLR, right? So the outstanding — that percentage we are seeing basically outstanding as on 31st March ’25, the chart we have prepared. But majority of the period the outstanding loans were there in the external book only and not in the MCLR book. So MCLR book in this quarter we had in the Q4 of this financial year, we had been able to grow in the month of March only where the interest income accrued. So majority of the interest income in the loan book was coming from the external benchmark rates only. So where the cut happened actually?
Ashlesh Sonje
Okay. Secondly, can you just explain again the accounting of the SR revaluation, which you have done, you said 50% but why would the entire revaluation not go under treasury? Why would it not go on that entirely yeah. Just explain that one…
Rajneesh Karnatak
So Kumar, would you able to explain this one? Why we have taken it as 50% NARCL how is my accounting entry, how we have done? Take a thing. You want to take one-to-one, okay.
Ashlesh Sonje
Just lastly, can you — can you elaborate on the status of a few of the few state government accounts which were under SMA last quarter from — I think I believe they are from Telangana.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah, yeah. So if you see our SMA side, again, those SMA accounts are still there of that state government, there are four accounts in that which are there. The slide number is there with us of for ’24. Yeah. So here, if you see the number is INR5,599 crores, our corporate SMA, which is there total, which constitute four-state government accounts and either they are in SMA-1 or SMA-0. So none of them is SMA-2 also as on 31st March and we are very confident that they would not slip. And this is the assurance which have been given to us by the corporations. Number two, all of them are secured loans. And another additional point is that all the four accounts which are there of that state government, they are state government-guaranteed. So we do not foresee any delinquency coming in those accounts, though they are having some cash flows issues and they are under SMA, but we don’t foresee any delinquencies coming there.
Ashlesh Sonje
Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Ashok Shah and Bhavik Shah is — are they online Gori and team? Yeah, kindly put them through any one of them yes Mr Ashok Shah are you able to hear us or Mr Bhavik Shah, whoever is available. Till the — till the time they join, I’ll ask one question which has come from one analyst from UTIMF, sir. He has congratulated you for the good results. His question is that a bank has booked INR1,800 crore-plus from sale of securities. What is the estimate for current year and what is the plan to protect portfolio yield?
B. Kumar
So I think who is this gentlemen from…
Operator
The gentleman has not given his name, okay. But he is from UTIMF.
B. Kumar
So basically, this treasury profit is dependent on the market condition which was at during that point of time. So yes, our endeavor will be to take advantage of the market and book the profit. I think it’s very difficult to give any guidance on the treasury profit because it is totally dependent on the market condition. Thank you.
Operator
Yes. Thank you very much, sir. Yes, if Ashok Shah or Mr Bhavik Shah is there, we’ll take them. Otherwise, we’ll let any of the analysts present here. Sir, yes, you are quite silent today, sir. Yeah, yeah, please. Sir, just a second is coming online. Yes, they are waiting since long, yes.
Rajneesh Karnatak
But they are not able to.
Operator
[Foreign Speech]
Unidentified Participant
Congratulations to Team Bank of India for a very stable numbers. So I understand you may not give any guidance on various parameters led by ROA, ROE, everything it’s done fine. Maybe when country stabilizes and the market stabilizes. Now all the challenges which you’ve taken on in the last 12, 24 months by rolling out products, technology, adoption of new practices needs lot of challenges where human resource is concerned. Now what have we done in the bank that emerges as a winner to adopt all the new technologies and new products that they show the profitability path and the gains are fructified from the — all the initiatives.
Rajneesh Karnatak
So we have done a lot of things as far as the PPT is concerned with respect to the process, people and the technology. So a lot of enablement and enablers have been done within the bank with respect of lot of processes where we have lot of processes we have to streamlined to make it business easy, not only for the customers, but also for doing the business at the branch level for the staff also. That is the first part. Second part is with respect to the people, we have done a lot of reskilling and upskilling of the staff, given them lot of trainings and other kinds of things. And we have also tried to now post them at the right person at the right place, so that the entire productivity we are able to capture as far as the business is concerned from the people side of it. Technology, as I already said that we have invested a lot of money in technology from the last two, three years. Nearly INR2,000 crores we are investing every year and out of which we are spending nearly 80% to 85% of that technology part. So it is going not only for IoT hardware and software, but also going for digital and also going for the cyber security part or even giving cyber protection and other kinds of protection to the customers when they — in case they are our liability partners also. So that is one part. Other thing is that now that we have established all that things, so the three segmentation of our verticals, whether it is the business vertical, the support vertical and control vertical, we have all made them business centers. That is another thing which has been done. To just give you an example, our audit department, which takes care of the audit of the branches, they have now also been given a task of finding the revenue leakage at the branch levels, small, small charges which are not debited in the accounts, loan accounts and other kinds of things. So this year, we have been able to recover nearly INR200 crores through our audit department through revenue leakages, which happened normal — in normal-course of business. So this kind of INR200 crores has directly gone into the P&L of the bank. So this is another thing and what how we did that was very simple that we gave more staff to the audit department, they had more resources available with them so that they had more manpower available with them when they were doing audit in the branches. So they were able to find those kinds of things. Another small thing on the technology part, just an example I would give through transaction banking and direct debits mandates which now that which we are taking from the corporates and also from NBFCs of their collection. So there also we have started getting charges collections. This year, we have been able to earn nearly INR300 crores from such kind of activity. So this is another kind of income we have built-up for the bank and we want to scale it up now in this financial year in FY ’26. So with all these kinds of things and with — as I said that all the business verticals, support and control verticals being in a way business centers for us. So everyone is now contributing not only either way by way of profitability through income or by way of reducing the cost through controllable cost. So both the sides it’s happening, which is helping us improve not only the interest income, but also the other income. And on the third side, the third dimension being the controlling the cost also, which is overall helping us improve the profitability of the bank, which is why which you see in this balance sheet, we have been able to give operational profit, which is on a Y-o-Y basis, it has jumped by 17%, which is a very healthy number in this market. And net profit, we are touching a INR9,000 crores of figure with a jump of Y-o-Y nearly 45%.
Unidentified Participant
All your answers are well-accepted. So the entire plan which you have rolled-out is supporting your operational numbers. Now the balance sheet may grow, profit will grow. The human remod resource incentive, whether it’s top management or the executives and the lower. If they work-in tandem, it may grow at a higher number. So what is that aspirational side of where the bank is concerned?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Correct. So see, we have a very structured now in the system being a public sector bank, a PLI scheme, which is a performance-linked incentive. So there are now two PLI schemes going on in the system, which is PLI 1 and PLI 2. Under PLI 1, it is for staff, which is up to scale three. That is based on the operational profit and up to 15 days of salary they get. So this year, we have got 17% of operational profit, which means that 15 day of the salary they will get as a PLI up to scale three staff means officers up to scale three, clerical staff and the sub-staff which is there. So that they will be getting. We have provided that number in this balance sheet. The other part is that DFS has already come out with a PLI 2 scheme, which is for a scale 4 and above, up to the level of MDCU. Scale 4 and up to MD are mapped under that same structure, same scheme. There also once the numbers are approved and everything is finalized by the DFS, that PLI will also be getting. So both the things together, we have already provided for in the balance sheet, in the P&L, you can see in the staff expenses because of which it has risen also. So that kind of provision already we have taken and that kind of incentive will be coming to the staff. As you said that we should take care of the staff that we have already provided.
Unidentified Participant
Sir, in view of the global trade-related situation earlier. And April has been a smart recovery where stock market was concerned. Now we are coming up with a new internal issues where India is concerned. This may lead to a smart CASA balances emerging in May with the stress, which is visible what is going to happen, whether it’s a 24 hour event or a two-week event, we are not aware. This may lead to a lot of CASA growth because people may stop consumption for some time. How we will take some initiatives where we garner higher CASA numbers for deposits to get a better market share.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. As you rightly said, you have observed rightly, yes, see in the COVID time also when the COVID struck, everyone thought even the bankers thought where we will get the deposit and how we will get the deposit because COVID is there, lockdown is there. In fact, it worked to the contrary. The CASA balances of the banking system just shot up in FY ’21 and the early part of FY ’22 in one or two quarters because of the fact that everyone started keeping their money in saving and current account for any kind of emergency and the CASA short up in the system. So similarly in this kind of situation, war-like situation, everyone will keep their balances with them. And as you rightly said, the CASA will shoot up. We have done a lot of enablers within the system. Now, if I can tell you that now we have additional one more GM in our resources department. So now our resources department, which is the liability department is headed by a CGM and now we have three general managers sitting over there. One GM is taking care of the entire CASA piece. One general manager is taking care of the entire government business, which includes the central government, state government and the PSU business with respect to CASA and term deposits and also the salary accounts which have to be done. And the third general manager in the resource department is our CEBV department, which is the customer excellence and branch banking. So there we are taking care of the customer service at the branch level and how better customer service can be given to the customers, particularly to — for the saving and current account holders. So if we are able to take care of this piece where we are able to give better customer service and we become a differentiator among all other banks in giving better customer service and personalized customer service, there is no reason why the CASA balances of our bank will not improve.
Unidentified Participant
Having known Bank of India presence well-accepted in the trade community in the Western states led by Mumbai, the touch point was very-high, then we went down for various reasons, 10, 12 years back. We are showing a sign of recovery. Bank of India Stock Exchange brand was very popular in early days. Cross-selling was very well-accepted for various — those times products were not existing. But now today’s world, every customer is looking for cross-sell, correct. They want facilities and they want support. Somebody may bank with HDFC, but Bank of India has forgotten for various aspects. How are we emerging from those areas which Bank of India used to champion about?
Rajneesh Karnatak
So as you rightly said, we have been doing lot of activities as far as the product per customer is concerned. So we are very much at the top management side, whichever is our GMs, CGMs, whole time directors who are sitting in this room, we are very clear that we need to improve product per customer that we are very clear. So our product per customer, if I give you, share with you the number, it has increased by 46 basis-points in the last two years through sale of various kinds of products that we are doing, not only through the physical banking which is happening, but also through the digital banking of mobile and Internet banking. And now that we have our own subsidiaries with respect to mutual fund and also SUD Life, which is selling insurance products, so a lot of now traction is happening and our marketing officers at each of the zonal office and the FGM office are now clearly focused and RMs are also there and we are selling lot of products, whether it is DMET account, whether it is mutual fund, whether it is the NPS scheme, all kinds of products we are selling to our customers and the product per customer has now started increasing. And with this engagement with the customer, we are now clearly able to see there are more balances in the saving accounts. And already, as I was telling earlier in the press meet also that we have 1,000 now HNI branches also designated where we have taken HNI customer as a customer which has an average quarterly balance of 5 lakhs and we have given RM to them. So that kind of thing is there. So all these things are combining together and helping us improve our CASA balances and it has grown last year, as I said, by nearly INR10,000 crores on a Y-o-Y basis at a time which was very challenging for the entire banking industry. If you see numbers of some of the bank, the CASA has in fact degrown in some of the bank in absolute numbers. But for us, we have grown our CASA by nearly INR10,000 crore on a Y-o-Y basis.
Unidentified Participant
I wish that your INR10,000 is at least 25,000 this year. Thank you. Hope all your initiatives support, but one recommendation that rather than only focusing for income Bank of India-led entity products, if all other products are sold, the customer may not bank at two, three places and may bank with Bank of India. Correct. Thank you for answering all my questions and good luck for the year.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much. Sir, there are good number of questions coming up on WhatsApp, but most of them are answered by you at one point or the other. So I’m not taking it. Gori and team to let them know that those are answers — answered. Only two questions. One by Vinay, an independent analyst. SME 1 bucket for corporate loan is INR3,357 crore. Has this been recovered since then? Has anything moved to NPA as of now?
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So as regards the SME numbers are concerned in the SMA book, it is INR4,599 crores total number, out of which in the SMA-1 book, it is INR3,357 crores and it constitutes the four accounts which are of state PSUs only. None of them has become NPA and the — as on-date when we speak, they continue to be in the SMA category at SMA-0 or SMA-1.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Another one coming up from Mr Jay, he is also an independent analyst. His question is that there seems some mismatch on specific provisions. Is there any contingent or non-specific provisions in INR13.47 billion. Yields on advance, why such sharp dip of 28 bps basis-points quarter-on-quarter? And third is riskiness of corporate SMA 01 to book.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Okay. On the SMA book, if I can continue with that, as I said in my earlier question also, while answering the question that all these SMA numbers of this state PSU are all secured advances, number-one. And number two, all of them are covered through a state government guarantee. And as I clarified earlier, none of them we foresee in this financial year to be slipping or becoming delinquent. That is as far as the SMA number is concerned. As regards the number which is on the NIM side, yield on advances side…
Operator
Yeah. Why such a sharp of 28 basis points.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yes. So that has already been responded by me, yes.
Operator
And mismatch and on specific provisions, is there any contingent or non-specific provisions in INR13.7…
Rajneesh Karnatak
I think we’ll be responding to that separately on a one-to-one basis.
Operator
All right, sir, if Mr Bhavik Shah and Ashok Shah are there, we’ll take them. Otherwise, one last question from the analyst, if anybody else is there. Yeah, do you want to say something? Can someone pass-on the mic for him please?
Ashok Ajmera
Sir, just again on the composition of corporate and retail. We have come from 55.45 corporate in 31st March ’24 to now 58.42 — I mean retail, 58.42%. So combination now is 58 42, correct as against 45. So going-forward, because we are one bank which is still having a good corporate presence. Correct, correct. So — and looking at the scenario when there is so much of competition, everybody is running for RAM, for retail and there’s a lot of competition. So are we open to look at increasing our — you said it will be touching 10% or double-digit, but really by focusing without thinking of the percentage like even goes up, are we open for that to increase our corporate book with of course good rated accounts and this thing or we are just close to bring it to 40, 60 or 35 65 like others.
Rajneesh Karnatak
No, this ratio is just a benchmark number. So internally, we have kept that RAM should be at around 58 and the corporate should be at around 42%. But we are totally open while we are doing corporate advances. If the yields are good, corporate is good and we are able to get good profit out of that account and good income out of that account, we are totally open to funding that corporate. We have no issues with that. So when we are saying that we’ll have a credit growth of — global credit growth of around 12% to 13% in this financial year, obviously, we have to grow credit. So we have to even take care of the repayments, which will be happening in this financial year. So if you see our book, nearly 45% of our books are term-loan also, which will — in which there will be repayments. So when the repayments are there, we not only have to take care of the incremental growth in credit, but also the payments which will come in the term loans. So we are totally open to corporates. Wherever the opportunity is there where margins are good, we’ll be funding the corporates.
Ashok Ajmera
Why are more specific about it? Is that because of the change of the definition of MSME? Yes, yes. Many of the corporates have come down into some mid-corporates in the MSME, which goes in your current other than corporate percentage. So more efforts are required there to recoup even that loss of — I mean, not loss of business, but going to the other category. That is why…
Rajneesh Karnatak
No, no, we are totally open to the building of that corporate book. You can get that thing that already we have opened 20 emerging corporate credit branches. That is for that specific reason only we have started those branches to have a portfolio in Bank of India with respect to mid-corporate or emerging corporate customers who can be future corporates. So there we clearly see that there are good margins for the bank and we can go for sole banking and earn the entire income for ourselves by having their — the promoters saving accounts, CASA accounts and even the employees accounts, everything. So lot of opportunities of third-party selling and cross-selling is available with such kind of emerging corporates and it is definitely part of our strategy.
Ashok Ajmera
And just last passing a sort of a point of information that based on the Supreme Court recent judgment on Bushan. So I mean what is our status and what is our quantum? Which we had recovered? And what are your views on that going forward?
Rajneesh Karnatak
I have already I think answered this question. See, our, we had the exposure in this account and Bank of India had sold this account to our ARC. So we are not at all impacted by this judgment because it’s already sold with no recourse basis. So we have nothing to say on this. Yeah. But what I understand from the industry and the system is that banks are — would be — are under COC meeting will be held shortly, whoever is the COC members and they may be going for some protection.
Operator
So this is one last question from the virtual world also. It is from SBI Mutual Fund. The name is not being displayed. The question — first of all, yes, congratulated you on the good set of numbers. And the question is that a bank — is the bank having an offshore branch in Gib City? What is bank’s plan for relative growth of Gib City Branch vis-a-vis other overseas branches? And how active is bank in terms of non-deliverable products permitted by RBI, two entities operating in offshore locations.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Yeah. So we are very much having a Gift City IBU branch. And if you see our presentation on page number 41, our IBU branch is having an advanced composition of nearly 8% of our global advanced book. So it’s a very significant number and it is the fourth largest branch for us in the international operations. So a lot of advances we are giving mostly to the Indian corporates through our IBU Gift City branch and a lot of other cross-functional products also we are now looking at from our IBU GIFs branch, which now Ifska is now approving for either for insurance or for mutual fund and other kind of things. So a lot of traction we are having for our IBO Gift City branch.
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. Due to time constraints, we are not able to take further questions, either from the virtual world or from here. I think nobody is here. Thank you very much, gentlemen for joining us this evening and for this enlightening session, our refreshmens are outside kindly join them and the press release will be shared to you shortly by our Ad Factor team. Thank you all. Thank you very much and good day.
Rajneesh Karnatak
Thank you. Thank you.