Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Punjab & Sind Bank (NSE: PSB) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 28, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Ganesh Shankarnawar — Moderator
Swarup Kumar Saha — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Dheeraj Gaur — Chief Risk Officer
Ravi Mehra — Executive Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Ashok Ajmera — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Sushil Choksey — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Ganesh Shankarnawar — Moderator
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am Ganesh Shankarnawar, the moderator for today’s earnings call. I welcome and thank each one of you for joining us today for the Punjab and Sind Bank’s earnings call for Q4FY26. Please note that this conference is being recorded and all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the opening remarks by the management. Should you need any assistance during the conference call please raise your hand on the Webex Panel or press Start 3 on your phone.
I repeat, should you need any assistance during the conference call please raise your hand on the webex panel or press 3 on your phone. I would now like to introduce the management of Punjab and Sindh Bank. We have with us today Shri Swaroop Kumar Saha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Sri Ravi Mehra, Executive Director Sri Rajiva, Executive Director and Sri Arnav Goswami, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to hand over the conference to Swaroop Kumar Sahasar the MD and CEO of Punjab and Sindh bank for the opening remarks.
After which we will have the forum open for the interactive Q and A session. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Swarup Kumar Saha — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Mr. Ganesh. Good morning everybody. On behalf of Punjab and Sindh Bank I welcome all the participants and the analysts that have joined this analyst con call of Punjab and Bank on the Q4 and annual financial results of financial year 2526. The bank’s board has approved the results of the bank yesterday. And we have already uploaded the necessary disclosures along with the analyst presentation in the stock exchanges. Many of you could have already gone through the presentation. But to start the discussion I would like to mention a few highlights of the of the bank’s results and then we’ll have the question and answers.
So the total business of the bank has grown by 14.94%. A historic growth for the bank for Punjab and Sindh bank and it has just 2.63,652 crores for the financial year. Deposits have shown a robust growth of 12.37%. Gross advances has also shown a very robust growth of 18.29%. The CASA which has its own challenges in the current ecosystem. But the growth of our CASA deposits has been 10% plus though the ratio has marginally tipped. But the green shoot of it is this that we are continuously able to grow in this segment.
The return term deposits is a very very encouraging sign for the bank. And we are growing at nearly 20% at 19.58% overall. So these were some of the top line numbers in terms of the consistency in our operational come. The operating profit for the year has grown by 5.16% and stands at 200180 crore. The net profit of 1322 crore has been the highest ever historic profit of the bank in its history. It has grown by 30.12%. Net interest income was was at was at a flat of 0.74% at 3,812 crore. However, we like to mention here that the Last year in Q4 in view of a resolution of a big ticket advance we had a one off interest income of substantial amount of over 200 crores in Q4 last year.
And if we exclude that one off item, our net interest income growth would be above 8% in the current year as well. Core fee income which is has been we have been talking about quite quite strongly in our various calls and and we have been able to prove that the bank is able to now generate a consistent growth in the core fee income and it has come at 759 crore and growing at a handsome 22% plus the non interest income has grown by 13.47%. In terms of Q4 numbers. Net profit has grown by 34.82% nearly 35% net interest income again while it has as per the numbers declared in Q4 last year has shown a dip of 13%.
But again as I just explained in that one off item of Q4 last year, if I exclude that the net interest income is also on a quarterly basis has increased by over 12.46%. In terms of quarterly numbers, the core fee income has increased by 28.81% and non interest income was at 427%. The asset quality continues to be robust. Gross NP has reduced to 2.4%, net NP at 0.79%, PCR slightly moderately down at 90.91%. Slippage ratio has been at 0.7% and credit cost at 0.06%. The highlights again show that the bank is now growing in all the three segments of the RAM segment.
The ramp percentage has now touched nearly 59% and with a robust growth of retail 24 over 24, agriculture over 23% MSME over 29. We are our capital remains strong. Yearly cost income ratio is down at 60.97%. The return on assets also continues to yearly increase gradually and we feel that this is in a positive trend of the bank in which the rate of return on assets will continue to improve. Our CASA and retail term deposit the liability franchise continues to show robust growth. The ramp percentage advances also showed robust growth in terms of the CASA and retail term deposit.
If you put them together the growth has been 15.48% in the overall scheme of things and the other segments are all mentioned there our our credit profile on external rating wise also we find that this time there were some questions last time regarding the variance in the AAA rated and the AA rated borrower profile. We’ll find that there has been increase in the AAA rated borrowers to 18.05 sequentially double rated has also sequentially improved. So our credit profile looks very healthy. So overall the operating profits continue to show consistent growth.
Net interest income shows consistent growth. Net profit is showing consistent growth for the last three years. Income is growing and far as margins are concerned the net interest margin for the 12 month period was at 2.55. This is an area we’ll continue to work on because we need to mobilize more and more low cost deposits to fund our growth story. The cost income ratio has shown increase as I already said, return on assets from March 24 it was 0.41 25 it was 0.67 and now it is 0.79. Return on equity is also gradually increasing.
Business per branch is also having good traction. Overall we on the other areas, as I said, the recovery of upgradation continues to also propel the bank towards further efficiency. The overall recovery and upgradation has been nearly 1500 crores and we continue to the on this journey the slippages has reduced over the period of one year from 801 crores to 678 crores. So the gross NPA percentage has gone down from 3.38 to 2.40. Net NPA has gone down from 0.96 to 0.79 and recovery in TWA accounts continues to be in a focus area.
Our collection efficiency has moved from 67% in March 22 to 96% in March 26. So that’s a big improvement that has happened. In terms of slippages on this quarter. I think you must have all observed that there has been a slight uptick in the overall slippages of the quarter permanently due to the MSME accounts. We find that there was certain residual stress which we had told earlier in the in the AGRI and the MSME segments. So we have recognized those those stress that was there in the MSME segment.
However, overall the the gross NPA and net NPA numbers look reasonable. Credit cost is also very low. The SMA1 and 2.5crore is also at a very control level. We are in terms of organizational structuring we have done few organizational restructuring. In the current year we have opened three more zonal offices at Kolkata, Delhi and Lucknow. And we have opened also four more regional offices at Raipur, Bangalore, Shimla and Bhubaneswar. And we’ll have a much more. So that we have a much more Pan India network.
We are increasing our VC network. We are 3027 VCs now. We’ll scale it up to more than 4000 by the end of the current year. And various operational areas that we have highlighted on in digital enablement in RAM loans have been highlighted. Digital transformation, new features are getting added. We are adding lot of investments into our IT infrastructure and trying to build our operational resilience. And also we have taken out specific programs for capacity building in the bank through our Navjyoti Phase 1 and Phase 2.
The Phase 1 has been implemented. Now we are in the Phase 2. Phase 1 consists of primarily target setting, performance management, succession plan etc. Now we are implementing the phase two of the Navjyoti project which primarily focuses on capacity building of our executives. And we take out. We have taken out a plan of culling out around 125 officers from scale 4, 5 and 6 who will be specially groomed for the future leadership in the bank. So that program is going to be initiated very shortly.
In terms of our guidance, whatever we gave Last year for FY26 we could achieve most of them. However we just fell short in our net NPA and pcr. However, we feel that the current year also will be able to achieve all of them. For the current year we expect a Deposit growth of 13 to 14% advances growth of 16 to 18% RAM. We expect to cross 60% of the total advances gross NPA to be below 2%. PCR will maintain the last year’s level of guidance 92 to 93. Recovery and upgradation will continue to be on a focus.
We like to cross 1000 crores this year as well. Credit cost and stipping ratio should be below 1%. So that’s the overall snapshot of the bank’s performance. I am over to you Mr. Ganesh for the Q and A.
Ganesh Shankarnawar — Moderator
Thank you sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. I request the participant to limit their question to two per person and please rejoin the queue for any Additional question. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may raise their hand by clicking on the raise hand icon on your WebEx panel. For those who have joined us via audio call and wish to ask question, please press 3. If anyone is having connectivity or audio issues, you may share your questions on WhatsApp to us at 777.
386, 88746. I repeat, if anyone is having connectivity or audio issues you may share Your question on WhatsApp to us at 773. 86-88746. Before asking the question, I request you to please introduce yourself and your organization. First question is from the line. Sushil sir, please go ahead.
Questions and Answers:
Unidentified Participant
Hello, shushil sir,
Unidentified Participant
Are you there?
Unidentified Participant
Hello, Shushli sir. Am I audible?
Unidentified Participant
You can move on I think.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, sir. Sure. So next question we have from Ashok sir. Hello, Ashok sir.
Unidentified Participant
Are they muted?
Ashok Ajmera
Yeah, I’m unmuted actually. Now.
Unidentified Participant
Oh yes, yes. Okay. Yeah. Good morning. Yeah. Yeah,
Ashok Ajmera
Yeah. So SAB and the entire team compliments to you. The. The highest net profit of the quarter in the year. I think 422 crore for the quarter and 1322 crore for the whole of the quarter. Which is very heartening to note. And what is another point is that after a long time, I mean all the targets which you had given you not only touched those targets but even you know, you went much beyond that. Only if you look at the advances especially which I. The guidance was given at 15, 16% and you have done 18.29%.
Which is again another creditable point. Even deposit growth in this difficult times also is very good for the bank. Ram. Also you performed well. So on the whole a fantastic performance for the quarter in the year, sir.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Thank you. Having
Ashok Ajmera
Said that, sir, few words. The. My first rather I would say not a question but sort of an observation. And also to hear your comments is on the ECL guidelines which have been finalized by RBI that now of course the time is very short when you. But you have been working on that for a long time. Every bank is working on that. So where. Where do we stand on that? To meet the ECL provisioning and challenges which starts from April 2027.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah. So thank you Mr. Ajmera for your observations of the bank’s results. We’ll continue to meet your expectations as we move ahead on the ECL framework. The RBA has just taken out the guidelines yesterday. As you rightly observed that we have been working on this. On this matter for quite some time in the bank. The guidelines, final guidelines have just been announced. So we first of all we need to study that. We were all busy with the results so we were not able to really go into the deeply into the circular so far.
However, from the overall scheme of things my CRO Mr. Dheeraj is here. He will take this question forward is that overall we feel that as the. As the RBI has given a room to spread the. To. To. To implement it and spread the expected credit loss over a period of five years. I think we. We have a. We are. We are well positioned and and it is going to be taken into the reserves P&NL reserves segment. So I think we are not in a too much of a. We are more or less in a comfortable situation and we may gain somewhere, we may lose somewhere.
Overall we have to just go through the circular in deep because certain changes they have done on the risk weight also and in totality how where you have to look into up to 500 crores they have on the undated part they have also made some changes in a different circular. So overall we have to now work together and and. And conceptualize the the requirement of RBI in the bank based on our legacy accounts. Now I. I request Mr. Dhiraj our CRO to. To clarify anything which you. He feels at this point of time.
Dheeraj Gaur
Sir. Good morning. Like you know this circular is very much in line with the draft guidelines only and like any other bank we also like was preparing for this and overall in a good shape to develop the models and all. But now since clarity is there so you know we’ll be doing the final calculation and all as far as impact is considered since those two circular one is ECL and the other one is on our RWA calculation and all both are coming will be you know implemented from the same date. So overall impact will be easily absorbed.
In the second is around the five years glide path which has been provided. So that will end the entire impact will be on the you know capital part only. So overall impact will be not that much. Actually what we are expecting anywhere between 600 to 800 crore to give a number like. Although not right to give a number at this point of time since my numbers are yet to be calculated. But overall what I’m saying over a five year of time this is quite comfortable and we can easily absorb it. And over a period of time since my credit quality also have improved significantly so my PD number also will come down has come down drastically.
So then this will help me in reducing my overall ECL impact.
Ashok Ajmera
So Dita sir, I mean when you say 6 to 800 crore will be the impact you have you built up already some cushion in the pool so that you can take it in one go or you are going to spread. And when you say 5 years
Dheeraj Gaur
Is
Ashok Ajmera
It 5 year it is only up to 31st March
Dheeraj Gaur
2030. 2031 till 2031 from 27 to from 30 this is eir applicability of effective interest rate. I’ll go through again since you have raised this question 30 or 31 but till 31 I think it is there and EC that E application is from 2030 from first April 2030 but again we’ll go through it since it has come.
Ashok Ajmera
Yes, yes. And how much we already have the the cushion or the buffer against this expected loss
Dheeraj Gaur
Like since it has to happen through capital only so you know it Even if like 6700800 crore also even if the impact it can be easily absorbed like around 200 crore will be the impact on even if it is you know 800 to around 160 crore will be the impact so it can be easily absorbed in the this like from the bank’s capital buffer itself.
Ashok Ajmera
So our capital adequacy will not be impacted much.
Dheeraj Gaur
Will not be impacted much.
Ashok Ajmera
No thanks for clarifying this and we will have further discussions now going on because still 45 banks results are still left and I think we will have a chance to discuss with the management sir on this slippage front in this quarter which increased to 355 crore as against to 168 crore in the last quarter. But at the same time the SMA2,569 crore has gone down to 96 crore only and SMA1 has little bit increased to 515 crores. So the whole combination what color it gives the slippages are because of some account from 2 to NPA or you know the miscellaneous small amounts which were already like were taken in consideration.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah. I think as I was making in my opening remarks in terms of the slippages this quarter these I had told in this various interactions in this concords has been that that while the overall asset quality continues to improve and become healthy for the bank in terms of corporate segments and the retail segment there is still some residual stress in the agriculture and the MSME. And MSME is a product direct product of various developments in the economy of the country the global situations that happen and it directly impacts the small msme.
So it is only it’s not a matter of concern for us at this point of time because our collection efficiency is Very robust. These are some of the weak accounts which we thought let us recognize it and move ahead going forward. But in view of the, in view of the certain developments on the national and international front on the economic side, we need to be alert on, on this, on the MSME segment. The stress that may build up in the MSME segment in the, in the future. But as of now we don’t foresee any grave challenge it could be.
It is just that we thought instead of carrying on with the, with, with the, the stress letter as for the electrons, whatever was need to, needed to be downgraded, we have downgraded them and we will move ahead. In terms of the SMA, yes. If you find the overall number of SMA plus SMA 1 and SMA 2 above 5 crore. If you’ll find that in the December quarter, say March 26 quarter, it has significantly come down. As I told earlier also these numbers are looking inflated for the bank in view of the two state government guaranteed state government account.
So it goes from one place to another place. But one good part if you overall see is that the, the, those those accounts continue to be serviced. Well there is no issue there. They may slip in 0 or 1 and 2 and again move into a cycle. So the SMA 2 this important part, SMA 2 has come down significantly and the SMA 1 which was one state government account that also has cleared its dues in the course of April. So these things will continue to happen but we don’t foresee any inherent potential for account getting stripped because they are their service they are servicing in terms of the circumstances and because of state government guarantee available.
So overall my SMA book which was at one point of time, I’m taking the total book which was over 9% at one point of time and now we are hovering around 4.21% including these two state government guaranteed accounts. So if I leave out that two state government guaranteed accounts my SMA would be around about 3% and that’s a pretty good number for the bank to have. But we need to be alert. We need to continue our efforts to improve our collection efficiency particularly in the agri and the MSME segment.
Ashok Ajmera
Sir 1 on the NIM side, you know the continuous quarter on quarter there is a reduction though the overall NIM for the year is 2.55 which is also lower as compared to the. And, and I understand there is a pressure on nim, but going forward what do you think? I mean what, what, what are the plans, you know to take the NIM little higher from the current levels. How do we.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah like
Ashok Ajmera
Like we are conscious
Swarup Kumar Saha
Of this. We are conscious of this. The bank has a historic name low name of a low CASA because of and the fluctuations of the of the report rate also has has impacted it. But we feel that now we have absorbed the entire cycle of the repo cut of 125bps and we are we have taken various steps to improve our lending in the high leading side particularly in the agri MSME segment. In the corporate side also we have been selective in terms of choosing our asset and the pricing has been very very very very plays a very important role in what we do.
So we and also we said that we also churn our balance sheet portfolio credit portfolio among the AAA’s double A’s and as we get good we’re doing a good robust co lending. We have a good robust co lending platform over 10,000 crores that gives us good yields but it will take a gradual progression will happen. So overall we feel that by the end of the current year we should be touching 2.65 to 2.70 in terms of the name. So we are, we are moving in that direction and we’ll move and we expect that with the retail agri MSME percentage going up further and with no imminent visible rate cut scenario that is on the cards.
Hopefully hopefully we feel that now the cycle will move on the means in terms of our income. It will move on the upward direction
Ashok Ajmera
And the same will happen in the treasury also I think also will start generating better profits.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yes yes. You have observed that the yield movement has impacted many banks balance sheets
Ashok Ajmera
And
Swarup Kumar Saha
We hope that as the Gulf situation improves we will have a favorable write back in that area. But we keep our fingers crossed in that area.
Ashok Ajmera
But the geopolitical, I mean the vegetation I mean this war has so far not been seen visible on our portfolios. Any impact?
Swarup Kumar Saha
No, not not really. Not really. I think government is much aware of this. They are going to sectorally they are handling it. They will be I think working on some some packages for various segments but as of now in our portfolio yeah small msmes will get impacted if this lingers on a bit more than normal that we feel that can happen. We’re not having too much of forex business so from that part we are a bit immune on the impact. But overall msmes if in the long run this continues to happen and without any plausible solution there could be some futuristic cash flow impact on the msmes.
Ashok Ajmera
Okay sir, thank you. All the best to you Sir. Thank you
Swarup Kumar Saha
Mr.
Ashok Ajmera
We will again have some chance to discuss it further. Yeah.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you Ashok sir, next question we have from Sushil sir. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Please
Unidentified Participant
Go.
Sushil Choksey
Yeah. Good morning. Good morning team. Punjab Sin bank for a very stable and well guided management team has taken good pains to stabilize. Sir, you’ve strengthened your human resource, you’ve strengthened your HR processes, you’ve done well on digital to expand the footprint and otherwise. And even on working process you have improved. But global challenges are going to emerge from where MSME and retail is concerned because income levels are going to be hit. So how is the April visibility in terms of bounce rate new sanctions because you have guided for RAM at 60% specifically and foreign inflows also have stopped where individual markets are concerned.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah, I think that’s a fair, fair ask that Mr. Is asking. And from that perspective as I said to Mr. Ajmera’s question is that while we have done we have taken various steps to improve our efficiency levels the global situations, the hangover of the global sea changes will. Will continue to impact the Indian banking system or the ecosystem. We need to be alert, we need to set benchmarks within the bank in terms of customer onboarding. Our business rule engines for the digital segment needs to maybe maybe further relooked into.
And overall there is no room for complacency in terms of while the world going is good we should create proper mitigants in our journey so that in any circumstance, if a circumstance arises in terms of any severe impact of the into the global situation we should be able to be resilient enough to handle that situation. As of now what I can at this point, what we foresee is that we expect the resolution in the global situation will be happen in a course of time. That it has its own trajectory but it will happen and if it happens in a short period then things will get again back to normal.
In terms of certain though there will be a short term impact somewhere. So we’ll keep ourselves alert, we’ll work on the ground. We will keep our film functionaries alert and keep in touch with the customers if they find any inherent weakness building up in them. And that’s how we will continue to monitor aggressively. We’ll also be a bit more strong in our onboarding processes, on our underwriting processes that will happen. So overall and in terms of. Yes that what you said that regarding the trajectory of the new sanctions.
I think we are trajectory shows that MSME is still going pretty strong in our sanction rate. Retail is also going very strongly over 25%. So the sanctions continue to happen. In fact last year if you see I forgot to mention that in the food and agro segment there are also. We did a lot of work last year on the agriculture front and in our. I think you have shown it in one of the slides that the food and agro has grown significantly compared to last year. So farm credit, etc. So I think we’ll spread out risk among the three segments and build strong measures.
But as of now we feel that with. And one more thing on the structural side if you see we have also now decentralized some of our big zones that we had like we have carved out new. Now we call them regions of course we have carved out a new regional office in Raipur. It carved out a regional office in Bangalore, Bhuvaneshwar Shimla. So what brings to the table is this that they become much more decentralized control on the branch network, on the customers which will help the bank to be more efficient, to be more cost effective.
That’s all we will continue to pursue.
Sushil Choksey
Sir, then what is your digital spend? What is unavailed credit sanctioned up to current date? You said retail RAM is still looking. Specifically msme is looking 25% uptick. Is it because of reassessment due to various raw materials spiked by 30 to 50% or it is existing limit and existing customers which are asking more limits?
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah, it’s a. It’s a mixed bag. So far we are getting a lot of leads. We are as of as of the pipeline on the credit side, on the corporate side we are around around 18,000 on the corporate side. And if you see the last time when we discussed I think we talked around 1012,000. So the pipeline is now increasing. Pipelines increase in various segments. Pipeline is increasing in logistics like data centers etc on the. On the infrastructure projects. Lrds on these are the pipeline that is increasing on the overall retail agri MSME segment.
I think new as we go more and more digital as we go more and more efficient way of delivery. I think there is still space in the market to. To garner more and more these sort of advances in the market. So it is a mixed bag for. For all of us to work on renewables also we are getting good leads. We were working on that. So overall things are looking on the credit cycle as far as our bank is concerned and our appetite is concerned. We feel that we have enough room to grow at a rate that we have just projected around 16 to 18%.
Sushil Choksey
So as on today you don’t see meeting your targets which you have announced meeting them seems a challenge.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Sorry, I didn’t get you.
Sushil Choksey
I mean deposit of 1314 advance at 1618 ram at 60% gross NPA2. You don’t see a challenge in any of these? No,
Swarup Kumar Saha
No, not at all. Not at all. Yeah. The bottom line answer is no.
Sushil Choksey
Sir, if I ask you other way around what are the three things which you would like to do differently than what you’ve done in last 3 years which would strengthen the bank.
Swarup Kumar Saha
See that requires a bit of time to answer but anyway to be on the pointer I think we need to as we have already said in our various communication our operation resilience has to improve over first of all the threats that are coming. The media reports that are coming in various ways. The new threat of anthropic is also being playing out in its own way. So and. And the the dangers of mule accounts, digital arrests and ALM money laundering. So many things are coming up in a different mode this nowadays.
So the first and foremost thing as a financial institution is concerned is that I think the operational resilience has to be upgraded in a large way and that’s how we have brought in lot of. We have given some slides in the presentation that that can be looked into and so in terms of why we are taking a lot of care on the cyber front. The resilience operation center will be implementing another 34 months time that will give a lot of visibility and and cyber security. That’s number one. Number two we le.
We still need to work very strongly on the on the our branch network and expanding in the areas by culling out areas by data points where we can expand much more productively. We have engaged global consultants to identify locations across the country where we are presently there or we are less present. And therefore we will identify the pockets where we will we need to expand and which will give us much more organically and on a pendingly basis. So that it is the growth has to be on a on a sustainable basis.
Thirdly our we have to work on on our digital transformation. We are we are now the board has approved for to go ahead with the the next round of digital transformation in the bank. That is an area which we like to complete in this financial year. We’d like to Launch the unique 2.0 by the end of the financial year which will have all the features of value added features which any bank is providing to any customer that will enhance the customer experience and also bring in fresh acquisition opportunities for the bank in terms of the competitiveness in the deposit world.
So expansion, digital transformation, operation, resilience. There are some more but as you asked three. So I just pointed out three of them.
Sushil Choksey
So what is the budget for AI, cyber and digital footprint and the new roadmap for vision version 2
Swarup Kumar Saha
Budgets? Ratnaji, do you have the numbers now or we can. We are increasing around 2x our budget but the exact number will provide to you separately.
Sushil Choksey
So I’ll come back in queue if there are further questions. Thank you for answering all my questions and all the best.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you sir. Next question we have from Brijesh Mangi.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah hi, very good afternoon Punjab and Singh team.
Unidentified Participant
Good afternoon.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah so my first question is sir, what are the key drivers for growth in the gold loan portfolio in the coming quarter? Hello. Am I audible to you?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. Any other question you have?
Unidentified Participant
Okay. So what are the benefits are you seeing from investments in CRM automation and chat boxes?
Unidentified Participant
Yeah.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah. So in, in the gold the key drivers of course we, we are now working on the both organic inorganic. We are doing a lot of organic growth identified branches for. For which can do gold loans. We have created specific SOPs, revised our SOPs, revised our guidelines so that while the portfolio is increasing we don’t. Our. Our. Our risk absorption appetites are also worked accordingly and and it will be. We’ll. We’ll also do our network through our branch network and also through through the NBFC’s co lending model.
So we will work on that both on the agree and the non agree part. And if you find that the key driver one of the question would be answer would be that organically also we are growing over 100% in the gold loan portfolio. So we’ll have a mixed bank both organic and through the co lending. The second question that you had regarding the CRM we have just established the CRM model the chatbots, these are all in today’s scenario a basic necessity in terms of customer experience. We feel that we have already started feeling getting the benefits of this CRM.
We have created a specific lead management cell within the bank. We have also created a marketing vertical vertical within the bank. It’s a new vertical that we have put in. So overall the this the leads that are being generated through various methods are getting captured in a very professional manner, very systemic manner and the leads that are going to the branches or the other offices are worked are followed up to their logical end through the specialized verticals. As far as the chatbots etc these are customer facing models that we have implemented it reduces the.
It reduces the pressure on the call center at the back end. Many of the information that are provided to the customer through the chatbot on the website helps them to interact with the bank in a much more modernized manner and efficient manner. So the benefits are multiple. And as we as and as we go along in the we have just implemented last year, we have stabilized the entire process. Now I think we will be able to go ahead and take the benefits out of them.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Noted sir. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Thank you Mr. Bijesh. Thank you
Unidentified Participant
Sir. Next question we have from Sushil sir. Sushil sir, please go ahead.
Sushil Choksey
Sir. We are focusing on our ram. Can we assess how many builder types we’ve done in NCR and the regions where we are strengthened? How many auto tie ups, tractor tie ups, EV manufacturers tie up? How are we focusing on the portfolio which is more profitable? You may have more share from a wallet of an individual customer in terms of various products. How many such tie ups or co lending partnership you have done that? We can strengthen our processes.
Ravi Mehra
Yeah. Good morning Choksi sir. Ravi Maharaj side.
Sushil Choksey
Good afternoon sir.
Ravi Mehra
Sir, somewhere around 85 tie ups have been done for the housing builders during the last financial year. And as far as the coordinating partners are concerned around 11 partners are there as of now. And with regard to the vehicle tie ups we have done with Mahindra and Maruti and we’re also looking for the going forward for Hyundai as well. Hyundai and Toyota
Sushil Choksey
And in two wheeler sir. Or we are not doing two wheelers.
Ravi Mehra
Two wheelers basically we do sanction but we don’t have any tie up as such.
Swarup Kumar Saha
We can. What I can add here is that now we have have the digital product on the secondhand
Ravi Mehra
Secondhand
Swarup Kumar Saha
Vehicles which which is expected to give us returns. So we’ll be tying up with this to this agency market true
Ravi Mehra
Value. Market true value
Swarup Kumar Saha
Etc. I think three, four agencies are there. Yeah. Which are there. So these are in the pipeline now.
Sushil Choksey
So how, how large is the portfolio on secondhand vehicles? Because it’s more lucrative than normal cars, new car financing and what is the growth visibility in that sector?
Swarup Kumar Saha
We’re just commencing our journey in this. It is not much. There’s nothing to be too much of a figure at this point. But we have now devised the digital journey for that. I think that was important for us to before we launch the product in a bigger way. As of now I don’t think it is too much of a traction. But with this new digital method of lending in this segment I think we’ll get a good portfolio.
Sushil Choksey
Thank you for answering my questions.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Thank you. Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Thank you sir. Next question we have from Ashok sir. Ashok sir, please go ahead.
Ashok Ajmera
Yeah. Thanks for this opportunity again, sir. Now since we have broken the taboo that of little lesser growing bank and this thing and now we have in fact outperformed on every front. I mean going to even, especially on the even the deposit franchise deposit front also. And but our perennial, you know, basic problem has been lower CASA and that is resulting in the lower NIM in spite of building our book. Well, so sir, I mean going forward and being a bank which is, I mean so strong now if you just forget about the numbers, the overall size that the bank can deliver anything and everything which any other public sector bank or any other commercial bank is giving.
So on the Pan India basis and can we do something, something radical to, to reach out to the people across the country, what are our, I mean is there any thought on it? What are our plans on this going forward that you know, like okay, now since we are already in the 18 20% growth zone, why don’t we plan for next two, three years? Because base is low so little higher growth in absolute numbers. So is there any strategy to bring up the overall business of the bank going forward?
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah, I appreciate your point. Is that regarding the. The a bit more faster growth if possible and whether the bank is, is in working in that direction. First of all, let me give our observation on this. While growth is essential, growth has to be qualitative and therefore it has to be, it has to be much more. We we are building organization which will last for four for. For a longer period from that perspective. So while the ask of. Of a higher delta growth is is what is all we aspire for. Let us also look into.
Every bank has its own legacy. Every bank has its own way of doing things. Every bank has its own network channels and, and its strengths and weaknesses. So what the basic point was that if you find, if you see we have put in a slide in the presentation where we have given a comparison of how the bank was growing in one period of time. And while the bank is growing over the last few years, you will find the difference now. It is better to move steadily, steadfastly, organically and structurally strong in a structurally strong manner.
That is the first part of your observation. The second part, what are we doing? The second part is exactly. If you see and these things that are happening, if you see comparison of five years now and five years earlier, it cannot come in without our teams getting mobilized better our systems getting robust, etc. So there is some effort that has gone there in terms of macro numbers. I’ll say that we intend to achieve 3 lakh crore by by the current financial year. That’s our aspiration figure. We have taken a board approval to achieve 4 lakh crore by financial year FY29.
That means we need to add around 50,000 crores in the next two years. 3 years per year. 50,000 crores per year. So overall the aspiration Is to reach 4 lakh crore. And we have devised a strategic roadmap for achieving those those numbers. And therefore we feel that we are in the right track now. Well, should we push further? That’s a internal assessment that we’ll take at an appropriate time. But I don’t think that is required. It is better to grow in a. In a structurally structured and a solid manner without compromising on any other areas of.
Of governance standards. Right. And therefore if you see the various we have now organizational restructuring we have done in terms of strategy. What are the strategies that you have taken to. To grow faster in that way faster means. When I say faster means qualitatively faster. So restructuring we have done in terms of the organization. We have now created a four tier structure across the bank. We have four five zonal office where GMs are heading that. We have new regional offices created now. We have 33 regional offices.
We are expanding in terms of branch network across the country. We have planned 200 branches. We have created marketing vertical in the bank. We have now introduced TAB banking for customer acquisition. CRM for lead generation. We are leveraging on our digital initiatives. And more importantly we are now very very strongly monitoring our branch wise productivity. That is an area where we will like to work in the current year. Our business per branch is around 158 crores which is increasing. But it is still much below the average of the industry.
So we are now working on branch rationalization. How do we improve our branch productivity across the bank? Open new branches with substantial business. We have engaged a global consultant to identify the locations for us. We are creating lot of products. We have got new central connect products for salary employees for salary accounts.
Unidentified Participant
Now
Swarup Kumar Saha
We’ll expand that central government package to the state government and other PSU employees. So we have a definite plan to. To. To. To take up to achieve those goal posts that that we have envisioned. And we have of course I’ve missed out in our very important development on the gift city. We have got the RBA Approval. I’m sorry I missed out in my earlier celebration. The Gift city is very important for the bank. We expect to launch it by October this year. We have got the space also some one or two more approvals are required.
Staff has been identified and to put in. They are going to join that area in this week. The entire staff has been mobilized. The the premises have been finalized. Some approvals are need to be taken. The IT systems are getting ready. So that again will give a gift a good fillip to our business study strategic growth to achieve that 4 lakh crore by FY29. Thank you.
Ashok Ajmera
No sir, it’s a very encouraging. I mean that’s what I wanted to hear. A 4 lakh crore bank by 2930 and maybe 5 lakhs immediately the next year thereafter. So that’s what exactly is required you know to reach a. Something you know like a critical mass. So that from there then there is no stoppage to do anything which you want to do. And this Gift City thing is. Yes definitely. I think many of the other banks have also adopted and it is yielding good results. So sir when the question comes on that then the, the main question comes up about the.
The manpower and the training, training, training and training for the working day to day working training on the advances credit side, liability side training for mainly the compliance side which is also a very big now issue these days. So many of those banks have carved out this training part from the hr. Is there any thing has been done like learning and development a separate vertical where the. The major emphasis given on the ongoing training to the. To the staff, the new recruits and especially so many new provisions are coming.
Legal things are coming, compliance things are coming. So what are we doing on that front sir? Is there because I am little not much aware about that happening in our bank.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Yeah. I think we of course adopt best practices in any way. Anything that happens in any segment of a bank governance and capacity building is very important as you rightly said. So having understood this that’s why we launched this Navjyoti project. BCG is advising us on this and in the first part of the project we implemented the target setting succession plan performance managed system tool based assessments. So many things that we have implemented which will give much more flip to the staff members to work on their target achievements etc.
Number two this year the Nabjoti part two is only only on skill development and that is exactly what we are doing through the the BCG again where they have worked with all the banks most of the Nearly all the banks in this area. So we are getting the best of the best practices which are getting implemented. And as you rightly said that learning is a continuous process and the new threats that are evolving new operational guidelines that are coming we have to remain updated. So we are taking out in multiple fronts at the junior level regular.
We have now opened a new center of excellence. Oh I missed out that also we have opened a second training college in Chandigarh. It’s a state of the art training college that we have opened in Chandigarh because we have a significant presence in Punjab. So we thought that let us have a good setup in that it is a state of the art that we have created excellence center that we have created and so that we’ll have two training colleges. We are also tied up with various other NIPSCOM Noida with other big management institutes.
MDIs, IMs, SBI Academy, all the other big banks Academy. So we are using those platforms to send our people. And the new dimension that we have brought this year in our skill development is that we’ll be identifying and we have identified 125 officers through a process at the four scale four chief manager, five and six levels who will be given specific trainings on the various events that are are required to groom them as future leaders of the bank. They’ll be given personal coaching also coaches will be will be provided individually to each of the 125 participants and they will get a flavor of how personal grooming is also Personal enhancement is also important.
While you do executive stuff, executive delivery so a very very professional way of doing things. We are also identifying people which we send abroad. We send good who have performed well to encourage them to do good trainings abroad. And we’ll continue in multiple fronts as far as creating a separate vertical is concerned. We’ll take that call at an appropriate time. We feel that at the present juncture in our setup our within the HR it is good enough. I think there’s a good setup in the within the HR on learning and vertical on learning and development.
I think that is good enough for us. Whether we need to segregate it from HR will take an appropriate time. So bottom line is this that this is an area which we will we have identified as a as a very key priority for the bank and an HR transformation exercise. That’s why getting carried out in the bank and we’ll get and this will be a continuous process that will continue to happen.
Ganesh Shankarnawar
Thank you sir. Thank you everyone. As there are no further questions from the participants. We now conclude this conference. Should you have any further queries please reach out to Mr. Ganesh Shankar at 738-688-7746 or at ganeshonceptpr.com Details are mentioned in webex chat and the analyst invitation sent to you earlier. On behalf of Punjab and Sindh Bank, I thank you, each one of you for joining the conference call today. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you. Have a good day.
Swarup Kumar Saha
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ganesh. Thank you all for joining. Thank you very much.