Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Bank of Maharashtra Ltd (NSE: MAHABANK) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 13, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Margaret Mishra
Nidhu Saxena — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Subhasish Roy — Chief Risk Officer
Analysts:
Ashok Ajmera — Analyst
Maruk Arijania — Analyst
Rohit Priyadarshi — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Jai Mundhra — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Akshay Badlani — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Ashlesh Sonjay — Analyst
Bhavesh Kanani — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen. Good day and welcome to the earning Conference call for Q3FY 2526 results of bank of Maharashtra. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. And there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call. Please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Margaret Mishra.
Thank you. And over to you Margaret.
Margaret Mishra
Good evening everyone. We have the following members of management with us today. Ms. Nidhina, Managing Director and CEO. Mrs. Rohit Rishi and Mr. Prabhat Kiran, Executive Directors. Along with Chief General Managers and General. Managers of the bank. I will now hand over the call to the management. Mr. Khela, Managing Director and CEO to Walk Us through the quarter. Thank you all. And over to you sir.
Nidhu Saxena — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. And thank you all for joining this con call. We have finalized our results today. And I would say this has been yet another quarter where we have consistently and I would say for last couple of years one of the best quarters in terms of profitability. Also numbers I will very quickly share. But before that let me share that the guidance that we had kept in the beginning of the year. We are the first two quarters and now this Q3. We are well above our guidance number on all the parameters we have been achieving.
Our guidance I will quickly share. So total business against our guidance of 15% growth year on year 17.24 and we reached 5.95,000 crores. Total deposits have increased by 15.3% against the guidance number of 14% advances has increased at 19%. Sorry advances against the guidance guidance of 17% have increased by 20% year on year then CASPA share has been maintained at above 50%. We are doing 50% this year. Also this quarter also our ramp to corporate share which was 60:40 plus minus 2 we have done 63:6337 share ran growth against the guidance of 20%.
We are exceeding that number. Also within the retail the verticals that are growing in the bank Home loans have grown year on year at 28%. Vehicle loans 54%. Gold loans 56%. Retail overall has grown at 36% year on year. Our stress in the loan book is very well managed. We have improved on this metrics also. Overall stress Number stands at 3.35% within which SMA 1/2 is 1.69% which is an 18bps improvement. In terms of above 5 crores this test stands at 0.19%. The gross NPA and the NPA the numbers are also very well managed.
Our gross NPA in terms of percentage has got reduced from 1.72 in the last quarter to 1.60 this quarter. The net NPA has improved from 0.18 in the last quarter to 0.15% this quarter. And we are well within our guidance that is to maintain our gross NPA less than 2% and net NPA at less than 0.25%. The ROA, the ROE and NIM numbers against the guidance of 3.75 we have achieved 3.87 ROA guidance 1.75. We have achieved 1.86. ROE guidance to maintain ROE about 20% we have actually achieved in this quarter 23.79%.
Our cost to income is to be maintained below 40. Against that guidance we have done 37.19%. Yield on advances stands at 8.95%. We have experienced also reduction in our costs and cost of fund stands at 4.10%. Cost of deposit stands at 4.47%. Overall the profitability has been good. In this quarter we have been able to clock our highest ever quarterly profit of 1979 crores and the nine months net profit as exceeded 5000 crores stands at 5005 crores. We are maintaining a healthy CRAR against the guidance of keeping the number above 16%.
We have a CRAR of 17.06% CET1 is maintained at 13 point in this nine months we have also seen ofs issuance by the government and we are today a MPS compliant bank with GUI holding standing at 73.6% ratings during the year. Beyond one international rating from Fitch we had approached S and P global and they assigned us BBB minus table in September 2025. Our long term rating is AA stable from ICRA. NCare short term rating is A1 plus from CRISIL. Looking at this good profitability we have also looked at considering payouts of in terms of interim dividend.
I’m happy to share that 10% interim dividend has been approved in our board today I will take a pause and I think we will take more questions from your side. The detailed presentation I’m sure is made available to you and you would have gone through those and we would like to take queries from you and respond to those. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press Star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We’ll take a first question from the line of Ashok Ajmera from ascon. Please go ahead.
Ashok Ajmera
Thank you. Compliments to you sir, Nidu sir and the entire team, Roy Sir Pravasar and the top management of the bank of Maharashtra and the other staff for a very very excellent quarter results wise. If you see any, you rightly said one of the highest quarterly profit taking the bank. In fact now the size of the bank is also increasing. You are now going to touch maybe the next quarter, six and a half lakh crores of the business. So quite a good sizable bank. And my compliments to you sir for the fantastic show.
Having said this and hello. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes you are. Yes,
Nidhu Saxena
Please go ahead.
Ashok Ajmera
Yeah, so just one, one or two couple of observation and a few points while in this quarter also we have grown. In this quarter we have grown well on the credit front as well as the even deposit also. But overall if you look at the nine months growth in the deposit it is only 4.73%. I don’t take the whole year. But if nine months, which means in the last quarter of this January March quarter we’ll have to raise the deposit of almost about 29 30,000 crores to reach the target of that 14% of the deposit.
So just like in the previous year, you have achieved that this year too. Are you confident of achieving this gap or bridging this gap of about 9% for the whole year? So on the deposit front, and this has basically affected our. I mean rather affected the CD ratio also which has gone up very high at 85% and CRR also has come down to now 17.06%. So I just want to like to have your comments on this that how are we placed and are we going to achieve the deposit target? This is my question once.
Nidhu Saxena
So Ajmeraji, the deposit guidance that we have kept is 14% which will be maintained. I would like to bring to this notice that if you see the deposit growth which is lacked the credit growth, but within the deposit, the composition that has grown in the bank is the low cost component. So CASA, even in the last quarter, if you ask me, 12% was the total deposit growth within which CASA grew by 14%. In this quarter the total deposit has grown by 15% but within which CASA has grown by 16% year on year.
Now what the focus is very, very clear to raise low cost component of the deposit very consciously. This is our strategy for last couple of quarters to let high cost bulk deposit leave our bank. If we don’t need that kind of funding and we have liked. We have tried to look at other alternative sources of raising resources. We have gone for almost 14,15,000 crores of refinance transactions when at appropriate time during the year carving some of our portfolio, we have been able to raise resources at a blended rate of 6%, 6.5% which have been quite beneficial.
And this is coming with no overhang for CRR and SLR requirements. So it was a conscious strategy on our part. In fact, last in this quarter we have seen the bulk deposits for the first time. We have degrown year on year by 7% in the last quarter. And this is overall the DRI component also from total deposits bulk. The DRI which was as high as 13, we have slowly and gradually let it come down and it stands it should be at 5.08. So it was a conscious strategy. And that is also impact on the CD ratio going up.
What we feel that it is not the bulk high cost is a function of rate of interest that we will decide. And we can easily get that business to enter our system. But we are more conscious on the profitability aspect of that. And at the right moment we will keep looking at raising more of the low cost deposits. And the priority will also Be towards retail deposits which are more stable, don’t experience volatility there. We keep offering some special schemes offering some special rates to get that kind of a deposit in our bank.
So this is how we are managing. CD ratio is also an outcome of that. But at the appropriate time we will be taking call during this quarter. And a lot of things do happen in the Q4. We are all aware that’s how the industry experiences. And I will have no element of doubt that 14% that objective is in mind will not be achieved.
Ashok Ajmera
Yes sir. Point well taken sir. In fact you are known for your CASA which is of course a low cost deposit. And it is maintained still in these difficult times also at almost about at 50%. Though it has gone down little bit from March of 53% to 50%. But this is commendable even to maintain this also sir. Having said that so now coming to this our overall profitability, the overall profitability of the bank as such is very good. But if you look at the treasury side I think in this quarter we have suffered the profit on the investment.
I mean the loss of about 180 crore as compared to the profit of 99 crore in the last quarter. And even if you look at the segment wise treasury profit also that has also gone down to 106 crore against 433 crores in the last quarter. So there is definitely some pressure on this. So going forward for the remaining 1/4 of this financial year how do we see ourselves going and making at least the offsetting this some of the treasury losses which have taken place or other coming into the profit which adds to the overall profit of the banks and make it more profitable.
Nidhu Saxena
So if you. If you. Before I start looking at this let me just give you one more number. CASA percentage has actually improved in this quarter by 26bps year on year. So that again is a substantial improvement in terms of treasury income. And the number that is you are seeing there is a one off 290crores of Maharashtra Grameen bank and Vidar Konkan Grameen bank amalgamation which has resulted in this 290 crores of one time hit. And if you exclude that treasury also will be seen quarterly profit of around 115 crores.
Ashok Ajmera
112
Nidhu Saxena
Crores. Yeah.
Ashok Ajmera
That’s good sir. So it means in the next quarter this 290if you remove an add to the whatever the treasury profit is there then that will get it further to the bank’s overall profit and it will be accordingly can be seen and analyzed. You Know the bank’s performance coming sir coming to the. If you look at the little bit of the composition in the segment wise you know results which are being always furnished along with as the requirement of Reserve bank of India. So here if you look at the profitability segment wise then in the retail book our profit has gone up to 1050 crores as against 673 crores in the last quarter.
You know almost about 400 crore. Wholesale book is also little bit better from 30 to 802. So is there any recomposition? Is there any like like maybe the gold loan or agree loan reclassification between retail and wholesale book or some or I mean what is the reason for such a segment wise such a high jump in the retail profitability Sir.
Nidhu Saxena
So if you look at the portfolio and the growth the main the elements in the retail segments the individual in the retail advances, agriculture, MSME advances if I talk of retail home loans are experiencing a year on year growth of 28% vehicle as a portfolio where we have focused on big ticket business with our existing clients has grown at 54%. Gold loan itself is growing at 56%. And we have also entered into co lending partnerships. Almost nine have been signed up to this time and where both majorly in the segment of gold then housing and MSME we are also signed up with the co lending arrangements and that is also a sizable book that has been built up and where we have got good pricing for this business that has entered the bank.
So this is how but let me tell you we are wherever we are growing simultaneously our corporate book also with the corporate growth of year on year 19%. I think it’s a very healthy where the industry may be a single digit growth and we are expanding into areas where new opportunities are visible, new profitable opportunities are visible. We have done a lot of green financing, renewable energy projects, we have done data centers and the like EV segment. So a lot of this kind of funding has been done in the bank and portfolio has gone up.
So contribution will keep coming from all the sectors and we will participate in any kind of opportunity that is visible to us. Which where the only underlying thing in the corporate segment. Whether we understand the risks, whether we are able to manage it well and if it is a profitable opportunity whether in the retail segment or in the corporate segment we will definitely participate.
Ashok Ajmera
So the last question sir on the slippages, our slippages this quarter has gone up a little higher at the 700 and almost 750 crores as compared to range of 650 to 700 crores. So is there any one off this thing of 100 to 100200 crore or it is in the common normal things in the quarter which is going to be followed in the coming quarter too. Sir.
Subhasish Roy
No. As well slippages also if you look. At the ratio our advanced book is increasing. In terms of percentage it is 1.2%. The same was the figure last year. And even one year back also we were around this range only. So there is nothing alarming. There is solved in the usual course of business. That’s what I would like to say. And just to supplement your observation on treasury income nd SaaS already put the things in the right perspective. But if you exclude that one off item which has resulted by way of.
Because of our investment in MGB in. The last year entire net profit on. Our investments was 220 crore. And if we remove this one off. Item then our nine month profit is 352 crore. Which shows marked improvement. Similarly on the FX reservation side also last year our entire year profit was 63 crore. This year in nine months we have done 107 crore. So core operations are profit. They are improving. They are contributing more towards profitability in the current financial year.
Ashok Ajmera
Great, sir. My compliments to you once again. And all the best to you all. I’ll come back again if the time permits, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Maruk Arijania from Nuama. Please go ahead.
Maruk Arijania
Hello. Congratulations. So I just wanted one clarification first. That it’s fair to say that you had absolutely no impact from the new labor codes. That’s my first question.
Nidhu Saxena
So we have done our assessment. It is very small amount. Around 33 lakhs is the figure with keeping into account our contractual employees, our regular employees and that is a number which is very insignificant and needs no discussion is what the sense we are having with the new labor code. New rules probably are under the framing and if new interpretations or within the code new rules are seen we will keep a watch on that and see how it is impacting. But as I said it is only a small amount of 33 lakhs.
On account of the new labor code. The rules which are applicable to us is the impact on Bangkok, Maharashtra.
Maruk Arijania
And that includes the gratuity contribution and everything.
Nidhu Saxena
Yes, ma’. Am. Yes.
Maruk Arijania
Okay. And so my second question is on the LDR only. So the LDR has shot up. That’s true of the system. It’s not unique only to bank of Maharashtra, right? And previously RBI has always gotten worried when the LDR touches 80. Now the system LDR is 82%. So do you foresee any regulator action or soft notch from the regulator given that the system LDR is rising so much and it’s already above the comfort level of 80% that has been historically the case.
Nidhu Saxena
So the LDR in my case we are keeping a guidance of maintaining around 83, 84 in the present circumstances. And we feel that is the best prescription in terms of able to generate our profitability. So I also had mentioned two previous. Very consciously we have been looking at other alternative sources including infrastructure bonds and which has also contributed in some way to see that 1, 2 bips more of CD ratio LDR in case of bank of Maharashtra. But I think there is no major challenge. There is no prescription from the regulator.
We all know that so far no soft nudge also. But we are mindful of this and we will keep looking at raising core business stable business that comes from branches rather than it is very easy for us which is a matter of function of interest rate that I would offer on a bulk deposit and let the deposit be raised in the bank. But we would not like to exercise that option. It will not be out of place to also say that we are running a project currently in the bank. We are calling it as Project C21 wherein 321 branches selected very scientifically at the PIN code level.
We have decided to be opened in 18 months. While I speak today 116 of those branches have already been made functional and they are doing business. So these branches are going to get us the core business of individual deposits in their jurisdiction in that branch. And that’s how we will be focusing. Keep continuing to focus on the core business core deposits, stable deposits where we see no fluctuations, major no volatility in our business stable figures is what we are experiencing now. And we will continue to be mindful of how the impact on LDR going forward and take corrective steps wherever we feel has to be taken.
We will do that.
Maruk Arijania
Okay sir. And my last question is on REITs. So what is your home loan rate right now for your prime or your best customers? And what would be your average yield on gold loans?
Nidhu Saxena
So we are keeping very competitive home loan interest rates. And the idea is with a big enabler of able to maintain such a high casa we are able to offer the best interest rates in the market. We charge 7.1 for our loan borrowers. But then this rate is again not available to all. One has to qualify in Terms of their credit scores so there is a grated slab the best interest rates is available For Cibil score 800 and above and we have a slack system Depending on what credit score I enjoy I will be priced according to that.
We have also been mindful of the quality somebody some mention was there for slippage so it is not only pricing the product for with CIC scores We have also done underwriting so there is no the underwriting benchmark does not permit in the bank no funding below CIC score of 681 and below Sibil score we have benchmark our underwriting to transunion cibil and681 and below there is no underwriting in any schemes in the bank so we are growing we are mindful of the quality the loan book that we are forming in this good times we are also aware of that part and profitability of course we are aware of.
Maruk Arijania
Gold loans.
Nidhu Saxena
So my gold loan we have actually made three options because with the tweak which has come or the relaxation dispensation which came from the regulator on this segment they have permitted small segment agriculture gold loans small Segment up to 10 lakhs MSME Gold loans and the non retail non priority the retail gold loans. So I have three products where I will if it’s a agriculture classified I will chart the lowest rate but we are getting a yield of almost 9% around in our gold portfolio also when I mentioned yes it includes agri also and we are also having the co lending partnership a sizable book today I think we are the leading bank in the industry having NBFC co lending tie ups and more than one nbfc we are doing that arrangement with where using seamless digital API and reverse API integration We are doing that business and we have almost now 5,500 crores of business in that segment where I am getting a good pricing I also don’t incur any expenses in safekeeping of the gold jewelry There is no insurance cost to me I’m getting a good rate.
So this co lending also is a and the portfolio is behaving very well. We intend to further increase this co lending partnerships with some good rated gold NBFCs who will be willing to join hands with us.
Maruk Arijania
And what is the coal lending rate rate on co lending portfolio? So
Nidhu Saxena
That is subject to our discussion negotiation but system knows that the private gold loan nbsp is charged very high rate we are not into that game we are mindful of the quality also Although it’s a self liquidating asset but there is A ceiling in our co lending arrangement beyond which we will not permit underwriting. So there is a strict business rule engine through which this entire underwriting will flow. So whatever gold NBFC branches throughout the country will do business. The portfolio is shared to the bank.
We do our, we will do our LTV checks digitally. We will do the screening and then purity check is done and we will underwrite this portfolio the very next day. So the technology that supports this co lending arrangement is working seamlessly. There is a reconciliation on a daily basis that is happening. And as I said lot of issues in doing gold loan business that we encounter when we do it in our branches versus in this co lending arrangement. The front ending is done by the nbsc. I am saving a lot of cost on those fronts also.
But rates are negotiated one on one. I would like to disclose those.
Maruk Arijania
Okay sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. In order to ensure management is able to answer queries from all participants kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow up questions. We’ll take our next question from the line of Rohit Priyadarshi from Mittal Analytics. Please go ahead.
Rohit Priyadarshi
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I hope I am audible.
Operator
Yes, please go ahead.
Rohit Priyadarshi
Yeah. So congratulations on good set of numbers to the management.
Nidhu Saxena
And my question is on the east front if you look at our yields advances it has been reducing from 9.27% last December to 8.92% this December. So could you please explain the key reasons behind this decline? Is it mainly due to the loan mix change or you know reducing lending rates or anything else? And what are what will be our yield guidance for the coming quarters? So the yield on advances is standing at 8.95%. But you would have seen that there has been 125 bips rate cut from the regulator. And we have like everybody, every bank has mandated to pass on the rate cut without any time lag.
We have to mandately pass this rate cut benefit to our portfolio which is linked to the repo rate. So around 40%, 42% of portfolio is linked to the repo which gets this benefit passed on immediately. But the deposit pricing which is always coming with a lag and with this rate cut happening the overall yield will see impact. But we have been very mindful when this rate cut cycle was in aware of that almost 30 to 35bps of MCLR raise we had done in a 10 to 12 months period before this rate cut began in February.
2025 and we have seen that this portfolio still maybe one or one quarter of portfolio which will be remaining for getting repriced in that msr portfolio around 50%. That is our loan book composing or linked to the MCLR. But again with this rate cut clients, the good rated borrowers have been approaching and they have been getting options. And we have to be aligning ourselves, remaining in the market and doing business. So some good rated borrowers also on the MCLR side have been approaching banks with concessions.
And when the competition is looking at those and considering them, then we would also not sometimes like to lose the business. So all these are elements of headwinds in this thing. But ultimately with rate cuts the ancillary benefit that bank is getting is that with new rate cuts we will see new opportunities coming for the bank for raising their loan book. All over new home buys are happening. The interest rate cut, the tax rates, the GST cuts. All this is doing is enabling empowering people to go and spend.
And when this is happening in the ecosystem, ultimately the funding opportunities for all the players in the ecosystem is only going up. So that’s how we are also going to get benefit out of that. The yield may little bit soften, but overall our volumes that we are doing higher, ultimately it will become a profitable proposition for the bank, though not on the immediate. When the rate cut benefit has to be passed immediately, there will be a lag where my deposits will get repriced for that intervening period.
Yes, but as I explained, ultimately bank also stands to benefit.
Rohit Priyadarshi
Understood sir, understood.
Subhasish Roy
We have a guidance on NIM. We are targeting to maintain at about 3.75 and we will maintain it.
Nidhu Saxena
That is good sir, that is good to hear. And then secondly, how focused are we on increasing the MSME loan book and what kind of yields can be expect from here? And since I believe MSME usually give higher yields. So do you see this helping our overall yield improvement going forward? So as I said, we are into wherever we see profitable opportunities and where we are comfortable to build our exposures on. So be it. MSME also we are looking at this segment also very seriously. What we have done is low ticket MSMEs.
The journeys have been created using technology and the end to end process is digitalized where we don’t wish to have too much of engagement in our branch for availing or disbursing these MSMEs small ticket size loans. So we rely more on digital journeys where we will set our own business rules and the underwriting quality will also be managed well. Msme, we Will keep trying to grow. There is. We have been growing double digit, high double digit I would say in 15, 16 lately in the last quarter you would have seen our MSME and agri book has shown a single digit growth.
I have also shared about this rebalancing strategy that we were undergoing and very consciously we are rebalancing some portfolio in these two segments and using these good times where the growth is happening in high double digit I want to onboard some business which is I should say a high quality business and replace some businesses with those. So this is a rebalancing that was happening. Now we have improved drastically. When we look at September growth in Agri MSME year on year versus December growth you will see marked improvement has come in and very consciously we have been underwriting big ticket Agri and MSME advances and onboarding them when these set of clients are coming.
Focus has moved from production link finance to investment credit in the agri segment. And that’s how we have done lot of rice mill, dal mill. We have done warehouses, cold storages. And where we have seen that while the portfolio has grown we have got some ancillary business also we have got lot of primary and collateral securities. So we have grown the portfolio in a very secured manner. And of course yes you are right to say that the pricing if you are able to service the client’s requirements expeditiously, this is a portfolio which is able to get you good rates also and there’s not much of competition here.
So we deliver our products and products fast through a quick decisioning and are able to command some premium in pricing also which a customer is happily paying to the bank. 2025 bids don’t matter if their requirements are expeditiously seen and met by the lender they’ll be more than happy to pay that. Yes sir. That is good to hear sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity and I wish all the best to the management. Thank you sir.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Jay Prakash Mundra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Jai Mundhra
Yeah. Hi. Good evening sir. And congratulations on a steady number. Sir, my first question is during the quarter RBI had opened the window for MSME dispensation to the export unit. What would be the quantum sir, if we would have received any any request for moratorium from export customers.
Nidhu Saxena
We’ll just come back to this. Come back to come back to you on this. We are aware of this dispensation and we don’t have a very big portfolio around Here. But we will just come back to you if there is any major thing. Total.
Subhasish Roy
Total amount for the MSME for the this compensation, whatever the RBI guidelines has come. It is around 5,000 crores.
Jai Mundhra
Okay. And
Subhasish Roy
It is already. We are. We have started the process and it is undergoing.
Jai Mundhra
Sure. So sir, you have a loan book of around 50,000 crore in MSME, right? Out of 50,000 crore of MSME around 5,000 crores have come for dispensation. Is is that. I mean is the number right? 5000 crore.
Subhasish Roy
Yes. Yes.
Jai Mundhra
Okay, sure. And these are all export heavy and predominantly exporters only, right? Those who are engaged in export and have been impacted under USRF etc.
Nidhu Saxena
Yes sir.
Jai Mundhra
Enter. The window has now been closed, right? That now no more. As of let’s say 13th of January the customer similar customer wants a similar dispensation. They cannot have that, right?
Subhasish Roy
Correct. It is a spot until 31st of January.
Jai Mundhra
Okay, sure. Sorry. Sorry. I, I, I missed that. Sorry. This is 31st December or 1st January. Okay. So the window is still open, right?
Maruk Arijania
Yeah.
Jai Mundhra
Okay. Second question sir on LCR if you can suggest what was the LCR at the end of quarter three and as we move into April 1st you know the. You may have now higher LCR requirement on the mobile and Internet banking. But at the same time you will have some release some lower risk weights on the bulk deposit. Right. At least the NBFC deposits. So how do you see the net net impact? Let us say on what is the Q3 LCR number? And assuming we have to provide higher on mobile Internet banking but lower on bulk deposit.
How should would it look like? Would it be net impact positive or net impact negative.
Nidhu Saxena
So we are looking at these calculations are being done. But we are meanwhile we are keeping the internal guidance for us to maintain LCR between 115 to 120. We feel too high on this number is not very good idea to maintain. And LCR to answer your question for Q3 is 116.36. And as I as I will ask my CRO to just respond to what is in the offering. As you said first April you want to add
Subhasish Roy
On the 1st of April whatever the guidelines you say in increasing this revenance or. Deposits and we have seen this HQA and considering the net. Outflow the net positive impact on the banks are around 3%.
Jai Mundhra
Okay. So the the net impact will be a. A positive impact on LCR, right?
Nidhu Saxena
Of 3% is what calculation is showing.
Jai Mundhra
Correct? Correct. So sir, assuming you have to move to on the 1st of April, you need not shore up liquidity, right? If at all you will have some release of liquidity. Is. Is that the right understanding or there is some other element here?
Unidentified Participant
You are right to say that.
Jai Mundhra
Okay, sure, sure. And secondly sir, if you can talk about the total total gold loan of Bangkok Maharashtra, the retail gold even given is around 12,000 crore. What will be the total? Do you have agree or MSME gold also or that is. That is not very meaningful.
Nidhu Saxena
No, Like I said we have all the three variants today with regulator up to 2 lakhs being permitted to be classified as gold loan under agree subject to conditions. So if those conditions are getting met, so agri gold loan is also possible. Likewise up to 10 lakh for MSME is possible. For other than that purposes it goes to be classified as a non priority gold loan. And the the breakup. If I have to tell you, the retail is 12,000 crores, Agri is 9,000 crores and MSME which is a new product introduction post this regulator guideline we very quickly gave this option also.
So it is 1000 crores. And this is one segment which we have been aggressively to grow. And we had marked as one of our focus products. If you see quarter on quarter we have been growing at a very high rate of 40 45% year on year, right? 18 months back I remember it was almost 7500 to 8000 crores. Today including coal lending we stand at 22,000 crores. So minus around 5000 crores of exposure in coal lending, 16,500 to 17,000 gold loan is happening to our branches. Rest is what is under the co lending tie ups.
So the point is we have been also very careful that this business, although is a very good business attracts zero risk weight as per the guidelines. But it’s the two elements which is the purity of the gold and the safekeeping of the pledged ornaments. These two infra we will create first and then only permit a branch to venture into doing gold loans. So I think the focus which is there has led to good growth in the portfolio. But going forward we will keep this drive of growing the gold portfolio.
116 branches that we have opened in this FY under the project 321 we have supplied them with gold safe from day one. So mandate is very clear. They would also be looking at doing gold loans as for the potential that is available. And today gold loan is not the element of six traditional south based states but it is happening elsewhere also in the country in a big way. A lot of scope is there to grow this portfolio? Lot of gold loans are in the unorganized segment. Despite we very clearly see after the COVID lot of focus has come from banks, most of the banks have grown gold loans.
But still I would say there is a huge market that is there for coming to the banks and even the NBFCs from the unarmed segment. And the customers also stand to benefit because the interest rates getting charged in the banks particularly will be very low.
Jai Mundhra
So we are
Nidhu Saxena
Growing this portfolio.
Jai Mundhra
Right. And sir, if you have this, I mean just. I’m
Operator
Sorry to interrupt. Sir, may I request you to join back the queue please as we have participants waiting for their turn.
Jai Mundhra
Sure. Thanks Anuj.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take our next question. Thank you. We’ll take our next question from the line of Bhavesh Kanani from UTI amc. Please go ahead. The current participant line is disconnected. We’ll move on to the next question from the line of Akshay Badlani from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Akshay Badlani
Yeah, hi, thank you for taking my question. So my question is around the margins. So yields, what we can see is it has dropped by over 25 bips this quarter and before that, you know there was hundred bps rate cut but the yields did not drop as much. So and also the rate cut happened slightly the end of the quarter. So wanted to understand that why did we see as much drop in the yield on advances and secondly on cost of fund side there also we have seen you know, 22bps reduction. So is that largely term deposit repricing or have we done some repricing at the on savings accounts as well?
Thank you.
Nidhu Saxena
So I’ll take your second question first. So yes, we keep reviewing the interest rates being offered across spectrum of products including the saving deposits. We also when we look at this business we see very clearly there are two components. One is the institutional business with the institution CASA and the retail core CASA that is happening through our branches. I have been mentioning about this vertical that was set up with the idea to reach out very systematic manner to the institutional clients which our understanding is they have a different set of requirements, they need to be understood, their requirements needs to be understood and we go ahead and do lot of value additions.
When we look at institutional CASA relationship coming into the bank where we try to give them some technology based solutions which will take care of their transactional needs, saving needs, investment needs or payments and collection needs and that’s how we bring value to those institutions and that’s how we are able to see that living in the ecosystem, many options of banks they are having, but they prefer to bank with us. So institutional casa, we keep focusing in a different strategy altogether.
The core CASA we are we have done lot of new products introduction to see that today in the ecosystem, whatever segment of savers are there, whatever segments of deposits that will come from banks, from women, from kid, from professionals, from HNI Ultra, HNI nri, the entire product basket is available, customized products are available to them. We have gone ahead and revamped one most important channel in today’s time where the customers come and transact which is not in the branches, but it’s the mobile application.
And I’m happy to share that our new mobile application is just not an upgrade of the old version, but we have totally revamped and launched a new version where the theme or the underlying principle was making life simpler for clients, letting them do transactions with minimum number of clicks. That’s how the journey, that’s how the app has been developed and it is getting lot of good reviews has been appreciated. Clients who have onboarded themselves are able to transact and see the difference what the old version took or 7 months for first 1 lakh downloads.
We achieved first 1 lakh downloads in 14 days. And today while I speak, this is a very recent launch in September on our foundation day. But we have crossed 6 lakh active users which in the previous version was 25,000 users. So that’s how we are bringing change in core casa. Giving right product choices, easy ease of customers for doing their business. Once they are onboarded, they are able to transact seamlessly with us. And that’s how we are seeing slowly, steadily admission is coming from that element also forecasta stable individual deposits and the institutional.
Your other question was
Akshay Badlani
On the E
Nidhu Saxena
Joint, you rightly have said, but see the earlier time it was not the full quarter impact which was there. We had seen and we have also passed on our rates. I did mention in my last response to a query wherein our good rated borrowers also are demanding. I would not like to lose a borrower and we try to whenever rate cut request is coming, we try to compensate that the overall profitability from that client should not have gone down. So we always see why we give them good rates so that they continue to bank with us.
But we try to replace the loss in the concession that we have offered through getting some ancillary business. So overall the income may not be seen in the advances book, but we will get some ancillary business whether it’s payroll accounts, whether seeking their payment and collection business and trying to get some income through those heads getting some of deposits of theirs to sit with us. That’s how we try to keep compensating that the relationship continues. Our profitability with that client also should not go down.
So. But then we are operating in this market. We may see another rate cut is being discussed. But we keep a close tab. We are mindful of those things and we keep doing business. And if you see the bottom line, ultimately we have maintained and we have not seen that any of my NIM Roa roe has seen a contraction. This is the quarter where we had. I had mentioned last time that probably we will not see any further contraction in Nim and we have actually increased NIM by 2bps only although. But we have increased at least no contraction and there is a 25bps rate cut is what we have come.
But then again the next quarter I will get the full quarter effect of this rate cut and we may even going forward see further rate cuts. But we will keep operating and keep maintaining the bottom lines and the profitability metrics, we will keep achieving those as per our guidance and try to surpass our guidance every quarter.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Thank you. Thank you for answering the questions.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure management is able to answer queries from all participants kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. We’ll take our next question from the line of Ashlesh Sonjay from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Ashlesh Sonjay
Hi team, good evening. A few questions from my side. Firstly, can you share what is the proportion of your term deposits which are yet to be fully repriced at the lower rate?
Unidentified Participant
That
Ashlesh Sonjay
Is one. Secondly, you mentioned that the home loan disbursements which happen at the 7.1% rate are a very small proportion. Can you share that proportion with us please? And lastly in your exchange disclosure you have shared that roughly you bought loans worth roughly 5,000 crores in this quarter and about 12,000 crores during the nine months. Can you share what type of loans these are and who are they acquired from? Thank you.
Nidhu Saxena
So first is deposit getting repriced. So when this rate cut cycle has begun and very closely we have been seeing and monitoring this development. So our typical maturity profile against the industry standard of 12 to 15 months. Our maturity profile at that point of time was 8 to 10 months. And we have seen most of the deposits by that time has got repriced. But then again there is a fresh rate cut announced and we will see that this is a cycle which will keep happening. And we are also seeing that we don’t wish our we should keep offering when the other banks who are not able to or not able to garner deposits and they are facing challenge.
They are also offering to very high rates to depositors and I would not like my retail depositors at least to leave the bank. They are the stable co deposits so we keep offering good rates to them and meanwhile not focusing on the high cost bulk but continue to give these kind of rates to them. So these are the I think continuous dynamic challenges that you will keep seeing when this kind of rate cuts will be happening. What is the next question please?
Ashlesh Sonjay
The proportion of disbursements which are at 7.1%
Nidhu Saxena
Yes sir. So 23% when, when we, when we introduce this metric we strengthen our underwriting of benchmark standard in home loans and all retail segment loans by saying that there will be no sanctions below 681. So the pricing also was tweaked according to that. So I can share with you when the 12 months have passed the 800 and above CIBIL score which is entitled to get that 7.1 rate, 23% of sanctions in that 12 months happened in that bucket and 57% of sanctions happened between 750 and 800 bucket.
So if you put together 23 plus 57 80% sanctions were happening in that bucket. So while I am giving very fine rates I am also trying to get some ancillary business because the mandate given to our field functionaries when they sell one home loan they will be trying to sell minimum four products on the day one. So they will try to offer a co branded credit card that we have now in our city they will try to do group credit life explaining the benefits of that scheme. And if they are not able to get the operative account from where the salary or the business where the servicing of EMI will happen, they will request the borrower with minimum 3 EMIs as deposits with the bank.
So we do home loan with these three four things together. So that’s how so but you will appreciate that the quality of loan book that is now getting created for the last 12 to 15 months this will be of good quality. We will not see going forward the kind of slippages number guidance we are keeping to maintain it below 1 it is behaving well 0.88 for this quarter annualized is 1.2 which is the trend we are seeing last quarter also and couple of quarters behind us and we would like to see that this ultimately will go down further.
Any question I Missed your sir.
Ashlesh Sonjay
So the loan loan purchases of roughly 5,000 which you did.
Nidhu Saxena
Yes sir. So the full transactions that we are doing at some point of time we keep analyzing our portfolio that is built and when we reach to that some rebalancing is required, we will do that. So we had also marked that we will try and reduce or reduce our over dependence on pool transactions. While saying this, we are not averse to doing pool at the right moment as per need of the bank. If for some PSL classifications I require a portfolio, we will do that. We will also do pool buyouts when we are getting a good pricing or we have other ancillary benefits with that.
But my core branches business must happen first. Then we will see what pool we will do or not do. So the mandate given to the field function is my 50 zonal offices and now 2700 branches is to stop looking at what the bulk business pool business you will do. That’s the central office call. They will see that the KRA of the Zolder manager is the core business that is happening in their set of 6065 branches. Whether it is happening or not, their KRA is very clearly defined in those terms. So what we have done is sir, we have reduced our over dependence.
The December 2024 quarter in fact became the first quarter where we have seen YTD degrowth in the pool year on year -7% in pool. But as I said again from time to time we will keep looking at taking pool partnerships. Today when in the AGREE and the MSME I mentioned about doing the rebalancing in my portfolio it was a conscious strategic decision on part of the bank and to see that the portfolio is there. We have taken some full transactions. In the last 12 quarter we will again shift back to my branches doing the core stable business.
And from time to time it is purely a central office call. We will see the profitable part of it, we will see the PSL requirements part of it and we will keep doing full transactions going ahead also.
Ashlesh Sonjay
Got it sir. Thank you. So just one clarification on the first question. Fair to assume that the term deposit book is largely repriced now and no more repricing should be expected.
Nidhu Saxena
So some more.
Rohit Priyadarshi
18 to 20% is likely to be repriced during this quarter is what is coming up
Bhavesh Kanani
And
Rohit Priyadarshi
Some part is repriced. But you know moreover what happens like the one is after the risk cut from RBI and then basis you know that there are multiple rate revisions at the bank level. So depending on the appetite of the bank. So basically this repricing keeps happening but as of now I we can tell that about 18% repricing is expected during this call.
Ashlesh Sonjay
Understood sir. Thank you sir, thank you very much for your responses.
Operator
Thank you. Take our next question from the line of Bhavesh Kanani from UTI amc. Please go ahead.
Bhavesh Kanani
Thank you for the opportunity. I hope I am audible
Operator
Yes, please go ahead.
Bhavesh Kanani
Yeah, so my question was on the MSME segment Saras mentioned couple of times that there is a rebalancing going on. So it would be helpful if you can help us understand the nature of rebalancing the purpose behind that. Especially in the context that within MSME the medium entities book seems to be de growing dramatically and this is surprising when we look at the sectoral GNP numbers which clearly reflects that medium enterprises are experiencing improving GNPA profile. So hence the question that what is the reason behind need to rebalance similarly on agree 2 while the headline total number seems to indicate a single digit growth within agree the agree infra and agree ancillary portions of the book are growing at much faster rate.
So what are the segments? The kind of borrowers we are serving here that would be helpful. And last one was on the other expenses that seems to be sharp spike sequentially. So what is the reason behind that spike? That’s all from my end.
Nidhu Saxena
So thank you for the question. So MSME there has been some reasoning behind the change in the regulatory guidelines. So with the MSME limits getting announced you would have seen some portfolio which is MSME ships. So they have increased the limits. So there is a portfolio which would move from MSMET to the small segment and likewise to micro. Even some corporate accounts would have moved to MSME getting entitled. So that is one thing which is happening as per the change in the regulatory guidelines.
What we have been also looking at rebalancing the threads book that I am having this is a function of not underwriting. There is no underwriting involved. It is a function of pricing. I can easily grow the threads build discounting portfolio by offering very cheap rates which normally is getting provided to the MSME suppliers when they get their bill discounting done on the Trets platforms. So we want to see that the final purchasers from those MSMEs are they our existing clients or not. So we decided that we will gradually move from if there is a debt discounting facility available and we are not part of the consortium or we are not lenders to that entity, we would like to move into their consortium, we would like to move even if they are into multiple arrangement or sold we would like to take their exposure in their normal credit also whether a term loan working capital so that we can have more visibility on how that entity is performing.
Not just leaving it to doing trades business all by ourselves we should have threads along with other business also. So that is one second we wanted to centralize and improve our underwriting in the MSME segment also two things we did CMR 1, 2, 3 up to CMR 10. This is what Civil TransUnion is assigning ranks to MSMEs from 10 lakhs to 50 crores. And we decided that CMR 125 below which no underwriting will happen in the MSME segment. So this was decision number two. So we’ve been pursuing that MSME threats bill discounting has been centralized from now zones 50 zones are not permitted.
We want to centralize the portfolio do seamless. There are two more discounting platforms which have been approved by rbi. We have signed with them also they have also been onboarded. So there is a lot of potential to grow but we want to have share in their normal financing. So this rebalancing and if you see my September 2025 MSME growth would have been sub optimal 2, 3, 4%. But we have grown now year on year 8%. So now that impact what rebalancing we have done from December and onwards I’m going to get to the same level of double digit growth.
But we are mindful as I said of quality the borrowers that are entering into my system how comfortable we are with them. And yes they are very profitable segment also. So we don’t want to exclude any of that part of business coming into the bank balance sheet. So this is all I think from my side on this MSME rebalancing.
Subhasish Roy
Regarding agriculture, your question on agriculture ancillary activities this book is growing and that is mainly food processing related activities like rice mills, dal mills and all that. And farm credit there is a degrowth. This is a segment where we have experienced some stress. So that’s the reason we are not going very aggressive in this particular segment.
Bhavesh Kanani
Okay. And the last one on other expenses.
Unidentified Participant
With regards to other expenses some various sectors are impacting. Like we have opened around 165 branches new branches. That is also considering the additional business giving expenses are also increasing. And second is also revolution depreciation is there since we last year we have revalued our some of the assets and that is why the depreciation is also increased. And also it capex expenses we have done so on or that part also or depreciation is also increased. So that is why other expenses are showing.
But on yoy basis we see 11% increment is there.
Bhavesh Kanani
So in terms of the continuing for other expenses I just was wondering if there is one of this quarter and it is going to normalize subsequently Is. There a one of them?
Nidhu Saxena
Yes sir. Any one off element is there is what being asked. You want to explain what is that one off? Otherwise I will take that.
Rohit Priyadarshi
So.
Nidhu Saxena
Okay, so some PLC certificates in this rebalancing is what the team is saying? I think only crores. 63. 6363 crore. So that is one of transaction that has happened in this quarter. But now we have come out of that in terms of new branch opening, what is our experience? Because we are doing this, almost 500 branches have been opened in the last three to four years. And in this year 116 in this FY. And we are going forward with our plan to open complete 321. So what we are by knowing that they’ll be first some increase in the opex.
But the experience so far has been that the new branch that we have decided to open after a very scientific exercise down to pin code level trying to decide where two things must be happening. There must be existing banking business potential and that center is also growing at a good growth rate. If these two conditions qualify, we decide to open a branch there. For a branch in one center we have even gone to see which is the PIN code within that center where we should open. Typically you would see a branch that a city is growing in one side.
So we will not want to open our branch in a site where nothing is happening. So doing it very scientifically, we have decided this list of 321 branches and what our experience is when we are opening branches in potential growth centers of the country we will see that they will break even also very fast. And whatever branches we have opened in the last three to four years we have been very closely tracking those branches. So the branches which were opened three years from now all have turned profitable.
Branches which are opened between two to three years, 60% of them have converted to profitable. So incrementally what is happening? While I do incur some OPEX in the immediate but incrementally what the new branch that is opened is giving me revenues and profit. It is more than offsetting the cost. So we are not at all bothered about increasing our expenses on account of new branch opening. It is only this one off item which is there in this quarter which will of course not be seen in the next quarters.
Rohit Priyadarshi
And
Nidhu Saxena
Very critical. The other metric, if you look at cost to income, knowing that we have been. I’ve been doing 37, 38% cost to income for a couple of quarters. But since we are opening branches we were has been maintained beginning of the year to maintain it below 40. But if you see cost to income today Also it is 37.19%. So cost to income is also which is almost I should say best in the industry. Even private banks don’t have that metric.
Bhavesh Kanani
Thank you for all the responses and wishing you all the best.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We’ll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Nedu Saxena, Managing Director and CEO bank of Maharashtra for closing comments. Over to you sir.
Nidhu Saxena
So I think not only this quarter has been good but the other element which is the consistency in the result, Getting delivered is also something element of comfort to the management. And I’m sure investors as a community must be looking at that. And also going forward the kind of branch expansion that we have been doing in potential centers of the country. I think this kind of high double digit growth for the next three to four years, very clear visibility is there is going to be maintained in the system.
We will be keep growing. Because these branches 3, 2, 1 doesn’t end. We have a board approval to open thousand branches in the next five years. We are doing it in two phases. The first phase we have taken up first three years and we took help of an external expert to help us use lot of scientific data points and tell us which is the center. And they have done lot of work around the CIC data that is available RBI data using their own algorithms. And they have come and told us very scientifically that in the center at this pin code is where the bank should have its next presence.
So I think this new branch expansion which is happening is going to sustain this fast growth rate also. And we will remain mindful of the profitability part of the business. It is not mindlessly growing the top line but any corresponding growth in the top line. How it is impacting our bottom line, we will remain mindful on that and see that not only growth metrics but our asset quality, profitability metrics, our capital adequacy numbers all are getting consistently delivered. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you sir. On behalf of bank of Maharashtra, we conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.