BANDHANBNKNSEQ4FY26May 05, 2026

Bandhan Bank Limited

11,699words
158turns
13analyst exchanges
5executives
Management on call
Partha Pratim Sengupta
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Ratan Kumar Kesh
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF
Rajinder Kumar Babbar
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND
Rajeev Mantri
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER – BANDHAN BANK LIMITED
Vikash Mundhra
HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS – BANDHAN BANK LIMITED
Key numbers — 40 extracted
rs,
nt and our priorities going forward. This quarter marked an improvement across many key parameters, reflecting strengthening fundamentals across our core businesses. We saw encouraging momentum buil
INR 1.54 lakh crore
indicators from the fourth quarter of FY26. At the end of FY26, our gross advances stood close to INR 1.54 lakh crores, delivering a healthy 13% YoY growth. Deposit balances scaled up to Rs 1.66 lakh crores, support
13%
At the end of FY26, our gross advances stood close to INR 1.54 lakh crores, delivering a healthy 13% YoY growth. Deposit balances scaled up to Rs 1.66 lakh crores, supported by strong traction in re
Rs 1.66 lakh crore
close to INR 1.54 lakh crores, delivering a healthy 13% YoY growth. Deposit balances scaled up to Rs 1.66 lakh crores, supported by strong traction in retail and CASA deposits, reflecting our strategy of strengthen
30%
iabilities. Retail term deposits continued to scale up at a strong pace, recording growth of over 30% YoY, reflecting growing customer confidence and the effectiveness of our branch-centric distribut
29%
branch-centric distribution strategy. CASA balances strengthened sequentially and now account for 29% of total deposits. Consequently, the overall retail deposit composition, including CASA and retai
74%
overall retail deposit composition, including CASA and retail term deposits, improved further to 74%, reinforcing the stability and granularity of our deposit base. Our focus o
6.2%
gradual increase. The quarter saw healthy margin expansion, with NIMs improving sequentially to 6.2% as funding costs softened. Credit costs continued their downward trajectory and asset quality m
3.3%
inued their downward trajectory and asset quality metrics strengthened, with gross and net NPA at 3.3% and 1.0%, respectively, and provision coverage at 85% including technical write-offs. For Q4FY2
1.0%
ir downward trajectory and asset quality metrics strengthened, with gross and net NPA at 3.3% and 1.0%, respectively, and provision coverage at 85% including technical write-offs. For Q4FY26, our ne
85%
cs strengthened, with gross and net NPA at 3.3% and 1.0%, respectively, and provision coverage at 85% including technical write-offs. For Q4FY26, our net total income stood at INR 3,566 crores, while
INR 3,566 crore
ision coverage at 85% including technical write-offs. For Q4FY26, our net total income stood at INR 3,566 crores, while our operating profit was INR 1,441 crores. I am pleased to inform that the bank reported
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Guidance — 20 items
Vikash Mundhra
opening
“Following the management's remarks, we will be happy to take your questions on the quarter's performance and our outlook.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“And we look forward to sharing our perspectives on the quarter, the evolving operating environment and our priorities going forward.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“In parallel, we consciously reduced the share of high-cost bulk deposits, which has helped strengthen the liability profile and improve granularity going forward.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“Additionally, even as slippages and SMA trends improve, we continue to place strong emphasis on recovery efforts, limiting incremental stress and moving steadily towards our medium-term credit cost aspirations.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“We believe the actions we are taking today will position the bank well for sustainable, profitable growth over the medium term.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“Rajeev Mantri, will shortly walk you through the financials in detail, I would like to highlight a few key performance indicators from the fourth quarter of FY26.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“At the end of FY26, our gross advances stood close to INR 1.54 lakh crores, delivering a healthy 13% YoY growth.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“We expect to sustain the current mix in the near to medium term with gradual increase.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“With a strong capital position, improving fundamentals and a clear roadmap ahead, we believe Bandhan Bank is well-positioned to deliver steady and sustainable performance going forward.”
Partha Pratim Sengupta
opening
“After that, we will be happy to take your questions.”
Risks & concerns — 14 flagged
We saw not only a decline in slippages on a sequential basis, but also a meaningful improvement across SMA buckets.
— Partha Pratim Sengupta
Additionally, even as slippages and SMA trends improve, we continue to place strong emphasis on recovery efforts, limiting incremental stress and moving steadily towards our medium-term credit cost aspirations.
— Partha Pratim Sengupta
The secured book grew 25% YoY and now forms nearly 56% of the overall portfolio, supporting further improvement in the asset quality and risk resilience.
— Rajeev Mantri
Briefly turning to the full-year performance, NII for FY26 stood at INR 10,830 crores, decline of 5.8% YoY on account of moderation in NIM led by continued expansion of secured book and impact of the repo rate cut.
— Rajeev Mantri
Higher credit cost was on account of pressure on the EEB book – an industry-wide phenomenon, that we saw play out during the year.
— Rajeev Mantri
Our actions over the past few quarters are translating into a more stable portfolio, improving profitability, while staying disciplined on risk and cost.
— Rajeev Mantri
And then the next question is opportunity about, I know the macro concern, assuming kind of relatively stable environment, how should we think about ROA for FY27?
— Zhixuan Gao
And as a result, the margins have gone up from 5.9% to 6.2%, it’s a 30 basis points increase, largely driven by the cost of funds, partly also due to the impact of lower slippages, resulting in lower interest reversals As we go through the next 2 quarters, we do expect further improvement because there are further term deposits coming in for renewals.
— Rajeev Mantri
Now that the EEB stress obviously is easing out, and I think initial impact will be largely taken through the balance sheet.
— Anand Dama
But yes, definitely, there are certain concerns like the impact of the middle east war.
— Anand Dama
Definitely, a challenge, but we are not changing the guidance as of now.
— Partha Pratim Sengupta
And Rajeev, one, like curious question curiosity that I have is around the LCR ratio rather because we have been able to maintain one of the better LCRs in the industry, even this quarter after this decline at 130-140 average that you talked about is also a very, healthy number?
— Nitin Aggarwal
I think if I exclude the base quarter number from the 3Q, the impact of Labor Code, I think I see a 14% increase in the employee cost QoQ.
— Rahul Kumar
So as Partha sir mentioned, this was because of a couple of days additional that people had worked and the salary impact of that and some normal salary expenses.
— Rajeev Mantri
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Q&A — 13 exchanges
Q
Yes. Hi, good evening. So just first question is what led to the strong average CA growth this quarter?
Rajeev Mantri
We will have Suresh answer this. We had focused on current account affluent segment where we could manage a good growth in the current account at the granular level month-on-month, which has resulted in the total growth, which has happened throughout the year. Okay. So, there's no seasonality in this, right? It won't fall in 1Q? These are small SME customers who have opened the current accounts with us. There is no major seasonality linkage. And our staff department has also continued to show deposits from the various trust that has also added. So, Piran the results of all the business initiat
Q
Hi, thank you for opportunity. Just on the operating expenses, you mentioned there are some multiple one-offs. Do you mind giving some colour on quantifying those please?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
There is some disturbance. Can you just repeat your question? Okay. On the operating expenses, you mentioned there are one-off factors. Do you mind quantifying those one-off factors and which were they? Yes. So, I think during the quarter, we had a couple of items which actually do not appear to be recurring. So, one is the PSLC cost, the Priority Sector Lending Certificate cost, which as we said that we have taken actions that this should go -- will get reduced. So, during the quarter, we had roughly around INR 60 crores of increase vs. last quarter that came through because of the PSLC costs
Q
Thank you for the opportunity. So, first question is on the month of April, now that elections are almost closing in tomorrow. Anything that we should, I mean, I think this time, we didn't have any interruption, so to say, from collections. So fair to say the collection trends would have held up in -through the events of April as well?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
So let me tell you a clear picture that till now, there is no adverse effect on collection on account of, I would say, either election or middle east war. The collection efficiency, what Rajeev has stated is continuing. But definitely a few basis point, it comes down in the month of April, but which is quite common for the days. But on the ground, no adverse effect is being seen. And we are hopeful and expecting that this trend will continue. Great, sir. Sir, second question is on the RBI ECL impact. I don't know if you already spoken in the past about this but given that the direct. I mean, t
Q
Hi thank you for the opportunity. I wanted to know that what proportion of your deposits would be government related? And the second question is, how should one think of margin trajectory from here on? Should we see improvement or a 4Q, generally, 4Q is the seasonally strong quarter, so can hear the moderation from here?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Suresh, our Head of Branch Banking is answering this. So, our government deposits on the CASA side will be around INR 6, 000 crores out of the total deposits that we have CASA deposits that we have. The retail composition is overall 74%, as you are seeing for that year, we have improved 69% last year. So, we have improved to 74%. We have reduced dependence on bulk deposits and majority of these bulk deposits used to come from the government departments also. So that portion, we have reduced it. So, the CASA share works out to around 12%, 12% of CASA is from the government deposits. And on the
Q
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, one question that I had was on your credit costs. So, this year, should we expect a credit cost somewhere about 1.5%, 1.6%? Now that the EEB stress obviously is easing out, and I think initial impact will be largely taken through the balance sheet. So, is that a fair assumption in terms of credit cost for FY27? Partha Pratim Sengupta: We are keeping our guidance unchanged. So, the credit costs have substantially improved, and we have ended up at 2% in Q4 and going by the current trends in the EEB, especially in the EEB segment the rate of recovery and t
Rajeev Mantri
So, our guidance, we have mentioned was between 1.6% to 1.7% by the exit of FY27, which is by Q4FY27. And we will still endeavour to work towards that. Okay. And are we largely done with the sale of NPAs pull now? So, it is an option. See it is a part of the NPA management. Option is neither closed nor we are following up also. So, we have not yet crystalized anything. So, if there's some opportunities we will be looking. If we get some good prices of our books we may prepone the cash flow, that's the only thing. That is the only advantage that happens, you know as you said. So. it is somethin
Q
Hi, good evening everyone and congrats on a good quarter. A few questions I have. Like, firstly, on the NII growth itself, if I see like NII growth this quarter is at 4% QoQ growth. And this has come in despite pretty strong advances growth this quarter, even the previous quarter, we had a decent pickup and margins have improved in both the quarters. So, any reason why this growth is lacking the advances growth despite such a margin expansion?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Let me just tell you, the NII, first of all, the interest income last year was affected due to the repo rate cut. So almost 125 basis point that cuts were there in the repo rates. Number two is that we also rationalized our own MCLR. So that was, the effect was almost 200 basis points on that account for the day. And if you look at the balance sheet, the advances have taken place mostly the incremental growth, 50% of the incremental yearly grown has taken place in the last quarter. So, for the day the effect, we will, we have not got in that quarter itself because many loans were disbursed say
Q
Yes, hi sir. This is Jai Mundhra. So, Rajeev I heard your opening comments on ECL shortfall?
Management
Q
So, Rajeev, my question is you mentioned that there is a shortfall of let's say INR 1250 crores odd in ECL transition and we have a credit cost guidance of 1.6%-1.7%. Given that now ECL provides that the transition can be adjusted through reserves, would you be, I mean, would you be, let’s say if you have buffer, you can still flow in the P&L and then you can adjust in the reserves or you would still like to minimize that shortfall? I just wanted to understand your thoughts on those?
Rajeev Mantri
No, so I think we are as we said, we are assessing. Look, the latest circular came yesterday, so we are actually evaluating what the latest circular allows as we understand is to take it through the retained earnings and also allows a period of five years in which it could be spread out. Therefore, you know, we will look at the flexibility that that offers and how exactly it impacts the balance sheet. Also, the assessment we did of the number we shared was based on December balance sheet. We'll have to reassess based on the latest balance sheet and of course how structurally we are able to cha
Q
Yes. Hi Rajeev, just one question on this employee cost as well. I think if I exclude the base quarter number from the 3Q, the impact of Labor Code, I think I see a 14% increase in the employee cost QoQ. So what led to that?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
I can say that INR 73 crores additional employee cost was there during this quarter. This has come on account number one is that yes, definitely this month there were large number of holidays and we have kept the bank open because to reduce for the collections and here we have kept the bank open for 2-3 days for which we have to pay some additional salaries to the employees as per the rules of the bank. So that has actually increased in the employee cost for the day. Otherwise, the all other costs are in line with what we have incurred in the previous quarters. Regarding the new Labor Code rel
Q
Yes, hi. Thanks for the follow-up. Just to reconfirm what Partha sir said, MFI slippages were INR 690 crores this quarter?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Yes. Gross slippages INR 690 crores and recoveries were INR 142 crores, so net slippages is INR 548 crores. Okay, okay. Yes, that's it from my end. Thank you.
Q
Thanks for the follow-up. Sir, sorry if this question has been asked previously. When you say the margins can improve by another 15 to 20 basis points, that is on the 4Q number or that is on the full-year number? Full-year number being 6.1%. And just a corollary to that question, it means if your loans are growing at 14%-15%, NII growth next year should be ahead of that. Is, is that a fair assumption?
Rajeev Mantri
NIM improvement that I mentioned was sequentially on quarter numbers. So, our quarter numbers are 6.2% and on that we expect 10 to 20 basis points improvement spread over the next two to three quarters. The guidance as we had been mentioning is by the exit of FY27, we expect NIMs to be around 6% on total assets, which means on earning assets basis it will be around 6.5%. We do have a line of sight of the next 10 to 20 basis points, we need to find another 10 basis points. So that's the aim that we're working on, of course on a best effort basis. Thank you sir. Just, just if I do the math, 10 t
Q
Yes, good afternoon gentlemen. Congratulations on the excellent set of numbers. Can you listen to my voice?
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Yes, Dev. Thank you, Dev. Yes. So as far as my knowledge goes and I -- how far I understand, that you are trying to increase your share of secured book, right? So by the end of FY27, are you trying to target increased share of secured books in your total book portfolio and what would be that percentage? And if you intend to increase the secured portion of your portfolio in comparison to other EEB books or whatever that unsecured portions are, what would be the effect on your NIMs? Is it going to come down from 6.2 or something? So, let me make it very clear. Because I mean if you are trying to
Q
Thank you, everyone, for joining and we hope that you continue to place the trust on our bank. Thank you so much.
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Thank you.
Speaking time
Rajeev Mantri
42
Partha Pratim Sengupta
33
Moderator
15
Piran Engineer
11
Ankit Bihani
9
Jayant Kharote
8
Jai Mundhra
8
Zhixuan Gao
6
Nitin Aggarwal
5
Dev
5
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Opening remarks
Vikash Mundhra
Thank you, Ryan. Good evening, everyone and welcome to Bandhan Bank's earning call to discuss our business and financial performance for the quarter and full year ended 31st Mar, 2026. Thank you for joining us today. We truly appreciate your time and participation. Within today's we will walk you through our operating performance, key developments during the period and our strategic priorities going ahead, along with our view on the operating environment. Joining us this evening are Mr. Partha Pratim Sengupta - Managing Director and CEO; Mr. Ratan Kumar Kesh - Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer; Mr. Rajinder Kumar Babbar - Executive Director and Chief Business Officer; Mr. Rajeev Mantri - Chief Financial Officer and other members of the senior management team. I'm Vikash Mundhra, Head of Investor Relations. Following the management's remarks, we will be happy to take your questions on the quarter's performance and our outlook. With that, I would now invite our Managing Dire
Partha Pratim Sengupta
Thank you, Vikash. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of Bandhan Bank, I am pleased to welcome you to our earnings call to discuss the financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year of FY26. We appreciate your continued trust on us. This has been an important and challenging year for the bank. And we look forward to sharing our perspectives on the quarter, the evolving operating environment and our priorities going forward. This quarter marked an improvement across many key parameters, reflecting strengthening fundamentals across our core businesses. We saw encouraging momentum build through the quarter, underpinned by disciplined execution and a sharp focus on balance sheet quality. On the asset side, advances continued to grow at a healthy pace. The EEB segment has not only stabilized but also delivered good sequential growth, reinforcing our confidence in the portfolio. At the same time, our secured book continued its strong growth traj
Rajeev Mantri
Thank you, Partha sir, and a warm welcome to everyone on the call. We'll begin by reviewing the bank's operating performance for the quarter. I will briefly cover the key financial highlights along with it will also discuss our business progress over the period. We'll start with the advance’s portfolio, where the development this quarter underscores the steady headway, we are making in repositioning and strengthening the balance sheet. As of 31st Mar, 2026, the loan book stood at INR 1.54 lakh crores, delivering 13% YoY growth and a healthy 6% sequential expansion, supported by momentum across all major businesses. The EEB portfolio at INR 53,906 crores remains lower on a yearly comparison, which was an industry-wide phenomenon, but it posted a strong sequential growth of 8% during the quarter. Growth in the non-EEB segments remains robust, with the portfolio expanding 25% YoY. This book represents close to two-thirds of total advances, reflecting continued progress in portfolio divers
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