Thank you, Sir. Next in line is Mr. Jay Mundra.

So my question is, last quarter actually we had a negative third quarter and fourth quarter we have seen higher slippages. Right?. So I mean, what is the reason for the higher slippages in this quarter? Could this be a new normal for the Bank or, what are the key reasons for rise in Agri, SME and Corporate slippages this quarter?

As regards, slippages are concerned. See, if you see the slippages in the Q4 of FY 23 was Rs.2,625 crores. In this quarter, the slippage has been Rs.2,038 crores. Though the slippage in this quarter, Q4 of this financial year, have been lower than last yea r, Rs.2,038 crores is still on a higher side because we had shown a fresh slippage of only Rs.1,313 crores in the Q3 of FY24. So, it is higher, definitely. We agree. but if you see on the YoY basis, our slippage in last year , FY23, was Rs.7,969 crores and in this year, total aggregating for 12 months, it is only Rs.7,551 crores which includes fresh slippage and debit in these accounts. Further breaking down, as you ask, what is this breakup of Rs.2000 crores of fresh slippages , if you see, 70% of this slippage is in Agriculture and MSME only and remaining Rs.440 crores is in one of the large corporate accounts which is there in O disha and another State Government account in Punjab. Let me tell you that there is Rs.300 crores plus account which slip ped to NPA in Q4 in Punjab. Out of that, Rs. 65 crores of overdue has been recovered . Another Rs.65 crores will be recovered within next 10 days and this account will get upgraded. So this Rs. 300 crores will get upgraded out of that. We are cognizant of that and we are trying to minimize the slippage. However, if you see our SMA numbers which was Rs.16,900 crores in above Rs.5 crores number as on March 2023, it has come down to Rs.7,100 crores as on March 2024 and which is only 1.28% of our total standard loan book. If I further give you a colour on this number of Rs.7,000 cores, out of that , there are four accounts of Rs,4,400 crores of State Government of Telangana accounts. If you remove them, then our SMA of Rs.5 crores and above is only Rs.2,600 crores which comes to only 0.47% of the total Standard book. So we are very confident that this quarter has been an aberration and definitely moving forward in Q1 and Q2 the slippages will be considerab ly less than what has been in Q4. Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Moderator

Thank you Sir. Next question is from the line of Mr Rakesh Kumar. Please proceed.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar

Thanks Sir. T he first question is just a continuation of the last question . Y ou are saying that in Q1 and Q2 slippage would be reasonably less. Could you quantify that. How much less and what would be the number.

If you see our slippage ratio for this quarter, you must have seen in our presentation also, that the slippage ratio has decreased considerably. It was 1.94% in March 2023. It has come down to 1.58% percent in this March 2024. We are very confident that for March 2025, it will be considerably lower and we are giving a guidance of around 1.20% for March 2025 as far as the slippage ratio is concerned.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar

Okay Sir. In SMA 1 and SMA 2 in the Agri as on December 2023 was Rs.259 crores and what was the slippage in this quarter, Sir, in Agri.

In Agri the net slippage was Rs. 626 crores. Gross slippage in this quarter from Agri was Rs.1,021 crores.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar

The SMA 1 and SMA 2 put together is Rs.260 crores in December.

SMA 1 and SMA 2 is for Rs.5 crores and above accounts in the presentation . This slippage is a global slippage which includes all accounts even our Rs.10,000 account comes under that. This is final slippage.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar

So what would be the SMA in the below Rs.5 crores accounts in Agri currently, Sir. Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript That we will come back to you separately. Presently I am not having this number.

Moderator

Thank you so much Sir. Next in line, we have Ms. Mahrukh Adjania. Ms. Mahrukh Adjania Just to hop again on slippages. I know that YoY, on every 4th quarter, there may be high slippages and you also explained earlier on that in September and March. You know, their seasonality and slippage is generally tend higher in Agri and maybe even in MSME but this time around, the Q oQ growth in MSME and Agri slippage is much higher than the last few years . So what really drove that ? I mean, why is it that the seasonality is sharper in the 4th quarter this year. That's my first question. I'll ask the next question later after this.

You rightly observed that there has been more slippage in Agri and MSME in the last two succeeding quarters in December quarter also in March quarter also . Th at is because of the fact that there is some stress building up in Agriculture and MSME sector, typically small ticket accounts . As you have heard in the previous question also, why this above Rs.5 crores is not reflecting here because these are all small accounts where this slippage has taken place . That is why it is not showing up in the presentation. They are typically those accounts that are very small accounts and obviously less than very much less than Rs.5 crores. They are, in fact, less than Rs.50 lakhs kind of accounts . So that is where the slippage is and in Agriculture there are couple of States. Every quarter, seasonally, a couple of States show stress and NPA in Agriculture. This time also, there were a couple of States where Agriculture NPA came out larger in numbers than in other States. Ms. Mahrukh Adjania Okay Sir and in terms of provisioning, you mentioned a lot of breakdown so what was the SREI portion and are you certain that in the first quarter a lot of the Agri and MSME slippages will revive in the first quarter as in that they'll be upgraded? Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript We had a VC on Friday with our field people, our Field General Managers, 13 FGMOs and Zonal Heads and today also we had a meeting internally at the Top Management level. So there are two pieces to it, Mahrukh. One part is that the fresh slippages which have taken place in the March month of FY24 and the other is the slippages which are taking place after 1st of April. So we have sensitized the field. Now they have started working on upgrading of these accounts. So whatever the amount has to be recovered, overdue amount, they will be recovering and upgrading these accounts. So we are expecting a good upgradation happening from the slippage which happened in March 2024 and whatever slipped post of March 2024. That is from 1st of April.

Okay. And the SREI provision, you said there was some extra on SREI.

It was not extra. It was a correction in provision of SREI of Rs.55 crores, which was a difference which was left out last quarter. So this Rs.55 crores has taken care in Q4. So everything is taken care in SREI now.

Moderator

Thank you, Mahrukh ma'am. Next in line, we have Mr. Sushil Choksey . Sir, you may unmute yourself and proceed.

Bank of India, congratulations for very stable numbers, barring one event which is not in your hands. My first question comes from your TV interview where you spoke about credit growth, credit pipeline already visible. Can you elaborate that a little bit?

So as regards our credit side is concerned, you are aware that we have touched Rs.5.85 trillion on the credit number with a growth of around 13%. And Sushilji, if you see our domestic credit numbers, there the growth is more than 14%. So for the guidance for FY25, we have given a guidance of 13% to 14% of global credit growth. Presently also we are having, as I told in my TV interview, that pipeline of nearly Rs.50,000 crores we are having as on 31st March 24. Out of which Rs.38,000 crores in Corporate C redit and Rs.12,000 crores in RAM segment, typically in Retail and Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript MSME. So this will get disbursed in the next ensuing two quarters in Q1 and Q2. And within that, there is a healthy pipeline with respect to infrastructure . With respect to green power, in solar we have, in wind also we are having. And then some of the thermal power plants are also coming for refinance. All these are in the pipeline. Then steel industry, textile is there. Pharmaceutical is there. Chemical is there. Oil companies also sanct ions we have given . I would say that in Retail and A griculture good growth is happening, YoY growth. If you see in the Retail side, our growth was around 18%, in Agriculture it was 16% and in the MSME it was 10% and we have also adopted these cluster-based schemes. From there also we are getting good traction in the MSME. Apart from that, under the PLI scheme also we are funding. Gati Shakti also there are Road projects which are coming, which we are funding. So, all in all, we are seeing a broad-based credit growth coming not only from the RAM sector but also from the Mid-Corporate and Large Corporate sector and Sushil ji one more thing we would like to tell that apart from the 9 Large Corporate Branches, we are also having 18 Emerging Corporate Branches across India. So these 27 branches in Corporate Credit are sending us and marketing the proposals with respect to Rs.50 crores and above Corporate Credit. So we do not see any challenge as far as credit growth is concerned.

Your processing and ability speaks for the volume. So, I don't elaborate on it. We have signed up with REC, PFC, IREDA and various other organizations . Are we doing some kind of a joint lending program or it's a down sell which is more happening, underwritten process by them.

No. The MOU which we have signed is only with the REC. There also we are very selective on the projects which we will be taking. So, it is not a down sell. It is a joint lending whichever we are doing. So, we are open to all things. Further, we are open to all syndicates also, which are happening. We are also open to syndication teams which are there from HDFC, ICICI, AXIS Bank, SBI Caps apart from REC, PFC, etc.

And my next question is , India is getting included in various indices on the global market where the bond market is concerned and this will have a huge impact on not only Money Market but also in FX market. Being a leading institution with global presence, how are we capitalizing on this opportunity , which we may have , starting Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript July for domestic trading as well as FX and participants, whom we can capitalize as our customers, for future.

This opportunity is there as you rightly said . We are keenly looking into that . Our Domestic Treasury team and the International Treasury team is closely watching it . Though there has been some shrinkage of the margin as far as the forex derivatives are concerned, because of the high interest rate in the overseas market, but definitely we also feel that with the softening of interest rate, this market will come back and we'll be able to make some money in those Forex derivatives also.

My question was more pertaining towards your participation, linkage with investors who are coming to Gift City or there may be huge inflow of FX as well as Depository participants or participation via bond market, where our Government security - SLR and holding is concer ned. I was looking from that direction . Because besides your Corporate Credit, Treasury can have a super profit at the same time Retail can grow on a sustainable basis.

Our Gift City is already looking into it. Some products we are contemplating for having in the Bank for which we are already working on.

Thank you, Sir. Thank you for answering all my questions and best wishes for years to come.

Moderator

Thank you. Sushil Sir. Sir, the next question we've got a text via Mr. Jay Mundhra. His follow up question is, can you give some guidance on FY25 loan growth, NIMs, Credit Cost and ROA. Okay, Credit Cost. As I have already explained, the credit cost part, we are saying that we'll have a credit growth of around 13% to 14%. As regards NIMs are concerned, if Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript you see our NIM has gone down from 3.01% to 2.97%. As on 31st March 24, though we have protected the NIM in spite of the tight li quidity position, which is there all around in the market. And the resources is a challenge. Still, we are able to protect the global NIM at 2.97%. As far as our domestic NIM is concerned, the domestic NIM was 3.34%, in spite of the fact that tight position was th ere in the domestic market also. As regards guidance is concerned, on the Global NIM side, we are giving a guidance of around 2.95%. And on the domestic side, we are giving a guidance of 3.30% considering the fact that in the near term, the liquidity tightening will be there, and we feel that July onwards, the liquidity tightening would ease and maybe the rate may come down by the end of this calendar year. As regards ROA is concerned, our ROA is now 0.70% as against 0.49% as on March 23. So, regards the guidance is concerned for March 25, specifically, we are very much hopeful that we will be able to reach the ROA of around 0.90%.

Moderator

Thank you, sir. Next in line we have Mr. Raunak Daga. Sir, you may unmute yourself and proceed.

Mr. Raunak Daga

The question from my end is that you had lower Standard Asset provisioning in FY24. So can you elaborate on the same?

This Standard Asset provisioning, which was there earlier, that was mainly because of the 7th June circular, which we had to do. So if you see the Standard Asset provisioning, which was there at Rs.2,354 crores for the 12-month ended March 23, it has come down to minus Rs.162 crores. That is because whatever the accounts we had to pro vide because of the 7th June circular, all these accounts were showing Regular in performance and SMA 0, 1, 2 stress was not there. So, with the discussion with the Auditors and others, we have taken out these provisions in the Standard book. This was typically all because of the 7th June circular in certain accounts.

Mr. Raunak Daga

And so what will be the Standard Assets provisioning in FY25? Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript So we do not see much of provisioning here because all the se accounts, presently none of the accounts, as we speak, such kind of SMA 0 , 1, 2 is happening. So none of the accounts have been flagged by any of the Auditors or anything. So we expect a minimal provision to be there in the Standard Asset as on March 25.

Mr. Raunak Daga

Okay. And Sir, what will be your slippage guidance for FY25?

As regards the slippage guidance is concerned, presently we have given a slippage ratio of around 1.58% as on March 24. As regards the guidance, w e will improve our collection efficiencies and the guidance would be at around 1.20% for March 25.

Mr. Raunak Daga

Okay, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Moderator

Participants, you may click the hand icon to join the Q&A session. Next in line, we have Mr. Ashok Ajmera with a follow up question. Sir, you may unmute yourself and proceed.

Yes, thanks for giving the opportunity second time. Sir, what is our total TWO book or PWO book? What is the overall aggregate figure? And how much do we expect to recover in FY25? Rs. 43,000 crores is our total PWO book.

Okay. How much do we expect to recover year after year or say in FY25? Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript If you see our figures for this financial year, we had recovered Rs.7,500 crores, which is less slippage and debits in the existing year. So cash recovery against this was Rs.6,305 crores through cash recovery and upgradation . Plus, there was also some recovery done in the written off accounts during this financial year. This year also, we plan to have a better ratio than this . Internally, we have given a guidance to our own field functionaries, whatever the fresh slippage happens, two times of that we need to recover as a total recovery. So that is the guidance under which we are working in the field level. So whatever the recovery which we had in this financial year of Rs.6,300 crores plus the recovery and written off, definitely it will be better than that.

Okay. Sir. And on the whole, on the technology front, Sir, we have been talking for last 6 to 8 quarters. You know, we have been spending also good amount of money on the technology. I mean, this discussion is going on for the last two and a half years, three years. But finally, how many verticals which were planned and have been completed and put into the practice? And what is the advantage of this technology upgradation so far we ar e getting quarter after quarter or year after year? Can you little bit elaborate on the total technology development and the expense and the budget now planned?

As regards our technology part is concerned, we had a budgeted number of Rs.2,000 crores for financial year 2023-24. Against the Rs.2,000 crores of budget , we have already spent 75% of this budget as on March 24, within that Rs.2,000 crores, we have split it into Capex and Opex. In Opex, the expenditure budgeted was around Rs.1,200 crores. And for Capex, it was around Rs.800 crores. So 75% of that has already been spent. So that is the broad numbers that I am giving you. Apart from that, what are the benefits which have accrued to the Bank? So definitely, there are many benefits which have accrued to the Bank. One thing I would like to say that we have already started a Data Lake project also under Accenture, which will be giving us Generative AI, AI and ML. So that is one thing which we have started and we are expecting that by Q3 of this financial year. That numbers will start coming in. So that is one part. The other part is with respect to the digital banking landscape, which is there. If you see our numbers on the digital lending s ide, I would just share that number which is on page 31 of our slide. So 7.5 lakh of loans, retail loans, which is Retail, Agriculture, MSME have been sanctioned on the digital platform. These are personal loans, Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript pension loans, vehicle loans, gold loans, Kisan credit card, SHG, Mudra loans - all the three - Shishu, Kishore and Tarun. So these 7.5 lakh of loans which have been sanctioned on the digital platform, the amount aggregating is around Rs.15,000 crores for this financial year. So apart from that, 35 new projects will be launched in this financial year FY25. One more thing I would like to tell is, under the digital platform, another thing that we have done is that renewal of small Mudra loans, which is taking place through the automated mode. So what has happened is that branches are now free from doing the renewal in these small digital loans from these small Mudra loans. And it is getting renewed under the digital format and so much of operational efficiency and saving of time at the Branch level officer has happened in the Bank level. Apart from that, you are aware that Mobile App also we have launched with 300 plus features. So another thing which we have done is, Wipro is working with the Bank very closely for giving Supply Chain Finance project and also some product on the Cash Flow Management. So all these things taken together definitely in the next 12 to 18 months, lot of digital and IT transformation will take place in the Bank which will further help us in improving our operational efficiency and showing better profitability.

Mr. Ashok Ajmera

And Sir, the last question is like every other bank we were also trying for last 2-3 years to have some good co-lending franchise. So have we made some major breakthrough on that and what is our co-lending total overall portfolio and the kind of returns which we are getting?

As regards co-lending and pool purchases , there we already have 7-8 partners. The ballpark book is around Rs.4,000 crores as on March ‘24. Co -lending and pool purchase together.

And the kind of IRR or returns is a little better? IRR will always be better in this co -lending and pool purchase because there is not much of operational cost of the world over there. So if Rs.4,000 crores of RAM sector Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript loan we have to do , entire 5,100 branches would have got involved in doing small small Retail, MSME and Agri loans. But here at one single branch everything is getting placed. Only 7 to 8 staff is there and the entire thing is going through a digital platform seamlessly. So definitely operational cost is less and definitely the IRR is much better over there.

Moderator

Thank you Sir. Next question we've received in the chat from Mr.Narendra. His question is what would be our guidance on Cost to Income Ratio.

As regards C ost to Income Ratio, in March 2023 we had a Cost to Income Ratio of 51.08% which increased to 51.73% in FY24 for the simple reason that the employee cost had also gone up because of the wage revision and the full impact of it up to March 31st, 2024 we have taken both on the employee number side and also on the AS-15 side. So, as regards the guidance for March 25, we are saying that the Cost to Income Ratio shall be around 51%.

Moderator

Thank you, Sir. Last in line, we have Mr. Ronak Daga with a follow-up question. Ronak, you may proceed.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity again. So, Sir, what will be the tax rate in FY25?

Tax rate. It will be 25%. We have already migrated to the new tax regime in September 2023. So, we will continue to maintain the same tax rates. That is the rate that will continue.

Okay. And the last question will be, what would be the impact of the new guidelines on Investment classification and valuation, which has become effective from 1st April?

Basically, the volatility in the GSEC portfolio, especially the investment portfolio, will reduce because the shifting is no longer allowed. So, we will be focusing more on Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript interest income as far as the HTM portfolio is concerned. However, it will give us an opportunity to have a medium-term view in the trading portfolio, where the removal of that 90-day ceiling will help us to hold our securities for a longer period from the trading perspective. So, more focus on increasing the interest income and view-based trading. So, both ways, we see overall income will not be impacted. But, volatility in the other income will reduce because, with every interest rate cycle, the capital gains booking will come down.

Moderator

Thank you. With this, we would conclude our Analyst Call. I would now request Shri Rajesh Karnatak for his closing comments.

I would just like to clarify on behalf of the Bank, two points to all our Analysts who are there. So, I was expecting some question on that but it ha s not come, because some of observations were coming in the Press Meet also with respect to our non -interest income and the Operating Profit. So, just want to clarify further in detail. As regards non -interest income is concerned, we had a QoQ reduction in the non - interest income from Rs.3,099 crores in Q4 of 2023 to Rs.1,751 crores in March of 24. YoY, there is a reduction of 43%. However, we would like to clarify that in Q4 of March 2023 there was one time income of Rs.1,646 crores on the Security Receipt (SR) side which were booked under the profit from sale of investments so that was the one time book entry which was there . If we net it off , last year's non -interest income, Q4 of FY23, was only Rs.1,453 crores. So, actually, there is a growth of 2 1% on the non - interest income side on a QoQ basis. As regards the YoY basis, non-interest income, if we net off this Rs.1,646 crores from the total non-interest income of the year of FY23, the net income from Rs.7,100 crores comes down to Rs.5,454 crores and this year we have shown a non-interest income of Rs.6,095 crores which is an increase of Rs.641 crores. So instead of a negative growth of minus 14%, our non-interest income has gone up by Rs.641 crores. Non-interest income, in fact, has gone up by 1 2% if we remove that one off item which was a book entry which was there in the last year. Similarly on the operating profit side, if you see in our presentation in Q4 of FY23, it is Rs.4,184 crores. Again, this Rs.1,646 crores of SR impact, which was there in book entry last year, if we net it off, the Operating Profit for last year Q4 was Rs.2,538 crores. If we compare the netted Operating Profit with Rs.3,557 crores of Q4 FY24, there is an increase of Rs.1,019 crores. So, as against the presentation which is there at minus 15%, after netting, we have an increase of actually 40% in Operating Profit on QoQ basis. As regards YoY basis, we have shown last year Rs.13,393 crores of Q4FY24 Earnings Conference Call Transcript Operating Profit. If we net off that one time entry which was of the SR of Rs.1,646 crores the net operating profit was Rs.11,747 crores and this year , since we have Operating Profit of Rs.14,069 crores, the increase in Operating Profit is Rs.2,322 crores for Bank of India. So, as against 5% which we have shown in the slide , if we net off this SR number, which is an accounting number, actually our Operating Profit has gone up by 1 2%. So, on both the sides , net non-interest income and Operating Profit, the numbers were actually high but due to one single entry on the accounting book side, we had to show a lower Operating Profit and the non-interest income. So, this is one clarification I wanted to give before we close this Analyst Call. Thank you so much from Bank of India side and thank you all for joining. Thank you so much.

Moderator

Thank you Rajneesh Sir for the detailed explanation. On behalf of Bank of India, I announce that this conference concluded you may disconnect. Thank you for joining us.