SOUTHBANK · Q1 FY27 · earnings call
SOUTHBANK
South Indian Bank reported strong financial performance in Q1 FY27, with a 17% YoY increase in net profit to INR378 crore. Key highlights include deposit growth of 11%, CASA growth of 15%, and advances growing by 17%. The bank also saw an improvement in NIMs and reduced NPAs. Management emphasized strategic shifts towards higher-yielding assets, cautious expansion plans, and cost management.




Key financials
| Net Profit | ₹378 crore | YoY growth of 17% |
| Total Deposits | ₹125,817 crore | YoY growth of 11% |
| CASA | ₹41,496 crore | YoY growth of 15% |
| Gross Advances | ₹104,368 crore | YoY growth of 17% |
Segment commentary
Retail Banking
Focus on MSME loans with a YoY growth of 18%, excluding charge-offs.
Asset Quality
Gross NPA reduced by 177 basis points to 1.38% YoY, and net NPA decreased by 42 basis points to 26 basis points YoY.
Guidance & outlook
- Expect continued focus on CASA growth and strategic asset allocation.
- Anticipate stable or improving NIMs with potential rate hikes.
- Plan for cautious branch expansion in key locations.
Notable quotes
“We are reasonably well positioned with respect to NIM. And we do expect that the outcomes for us during the year will be positive.”— P.R. Seshadri
Key takeaways
- Strong financial performance driven by deposit and advance growth.
- Improved net interest margin reflecting effective liability management.
- Focus on high-yielding assets to sustain profitability.
- Management's cautious approach to expansion and cost control.
Risks flagged
- Uncertainty in West Asia impacting corporate credit risk.
- Potential challenges in fee income recovery.
Educational analysis only. Not investment advice. Consult a
SEBI-registered advisor before investing. Source: https://nsearchives.nseindia.com/corporate/SOUTHBANK_22072026175804_SD_STT_TRANSCRIPT_22JULY2026.pdf
Full transcript (7,860 words)
DEPT : SECRETARIAL
REF. No. : SEC/ST.EX.STT/59/2026-27
DATE : July 22, 2026
National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., BSE Ltd.
Exchange Plaza, 5th Floor, Department of Corporate Services (Listing),
Plot No.C/1, G Block, First Floor, New Trading Wing,
Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Rotunda Building, P J Towers,
Mumbai – 400 051. Dalal Street, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001.
SCRIP CODE: SOUTHBANK SCRIP CODE: 532218
Dear Madam/Sir,
Sub: Conference call for Investors/Analysts –Transcript of the Conference Call
Pursuant to Regulation 30,46 and all other applicable provisions of Securities and Exchange Board
of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 and in continuation to
our letters SEC/ST.EX.STT/48/2026-27 dated July 13, 2026 and SEC/ST.EX.STT/56/2026-27 dated
July 17, 2026, we wish to inform you that, the transcript of the conference call for Investors and
Analysts held on Friday, July 17, 2026 at 16:00 hrs (IST) is attached herewith and made available on
the Bank’s website at www.southindianbank.bank.in under the following link:
https://www.southindianbank.bank.in/userfiles/file/sib-q1-fy26-27_earnings_call-transcript.pdf
This is for your information and appropriate dissemination.
Yours faithfully,
(JIMMY MATHEW)
COMPANY SECRETARY
Encl.: as above
The South Indian Bank Ltd., Regd. Office: Thrissur, Kerala
Head Office: S.I.B. House, T.B. Road, P.B. No: 28, Thrissur - 680001, Kerala
(Tel) 0487-2420 020, (Fax) 91 487-244 2021, e-mail: sibcorporate@sib.bank.in
CIN: L65191KL 1929PLC001017, Toll Free (India) 1800-102-9408, 1800-425-1809 (BSNL)
www.southindianbank.bank.in
“South Indian Bank Limited
Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call”
July 17, 2026
MANAGEMENT: MR. P.R. SESHADRI – MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER – SOUTH INDIAN BANK LIMITED
MR. DOLPHY JOSE – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – SOUTH INDIAN
BANK LIMITED
MR. ANTO GEORGE – CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT – SOUTH INDIAN BANK LIMITED
MR. VINOD FRANCIS – SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER AND
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER – SOUTH INDIAN BANK LIMITED
MR. JIMMY MATHEW – SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER AND
COMPANY SECRETARY – SOUTH INDIAN BANK LIMITED
MODERATOR: MR. AMAN – ICICI SECURITIES
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South Indian Bank Limited
July 17, 2026
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to South Indian Bank Q1 FY27 Earnings
Conference Call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the
company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on date
of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and
uncertainties that are difficult to predict.
As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an
opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance
during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone
phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to
Aman from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you, Mr Aman.
Aman: Thank you, Renju. Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining the call. On behalf of ICICI
Securities, we welcome you all to Q1 FY27 Post Earnings Conference Call of South Indian
Bank. From management side, we have with us Mr. P. R. Seshadri, Managing Director and CEO;
Mr. Dolphy Jose, Executive Director; Mr. Anto George, EVP and Chief Operating Officer; Mr.
Vinod Francis, SGM and Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Jimmy Mathew, SGM and Company
Secretary, along with other senior executives of the bank. I'll now hand over the conference to
management for their opening remarks, post which we can start with the Q&A session. Thank
you, and over to you, sir.
P. R. Seshadri: Thank you very much, Aman. Good evening to everybody on the call. Thank you very much for
joining us for the South Indian Bank Limited Q1 FY '27 Earnings Call. My colleagues, as Aman
had mentioned, are with me in the room, and we look forward to our conversation today.
Let me preface the conversation that we are going to have subsequently with some of the key
highlights from our financial performance for the quarter. The bank declared net profit of
INR378 crores for quarter 1 FY '26-'27, registering a growth of 17% compared to INR322 crores
in Q1 FY '25-'26.
Total deposits grew by 11% to INR125,817 crores from INR112,922 crores on a Y-o-Y basis.
Retail deposits, which excludes, bulk deposits, grew by 14%. That is to say that whilst total
deposits grew by 11%, retail deposits grew by 14% to INR124,306 crores from INR109,368
crores.
Gross Advances grew by 17% to INR104,368 crores from INR89,198 crores. During the last
financial year, we had a technical write-off of INR1,163 crores. And if we were to exclude the
impact of this, then the Y-o-Y growth is actually 18%. Total business of the Bank grew by 14%
to INR230,185 crores. Net interest margin for the quarter was 3.23%.
With this, we have clawed back the dip in net interest margin that occurred as a consequence of
the repo rate cuts. The net interest margin for the quarter was up sequentially 28 basis points.
And on a Y-o-Y basis, the NIM was up 20 basis points. The Bank was able to show a healthy
growth in average advances during the period with a growth of 17%.
Return on assets at 105 basis points and return on equity at 12.84%. Bank declared the highest
ever net interest income in the quarter at INR1,025 crores, which is a growth of 23% compared
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South Indian Bank Limited
July 17, 2026
to INR832 crores registered during Q1 FY '25, '26. It also represents a sequential growth of
INR110 crores between Q4 and Q1.
Capital adequacy ratio for the bank was at 19.62% and the Tier 1 ratio stands at 18.93% as on
June 30, 2026. CASA grew by 15% year-on-year to INR41,496 crores versus the earlier year
period amount of INR36,204 crores. Provision coverage ratio, including write-off, improved by
569 basis points to reach 94.51% and PCR, excluding write-off, improved to 81.40% during the
year.
Overall, gross NPA reduced by 177 basis points from 3.15% to 1.38% on a Y-o-Y basis. Net
NPA reduced by 42 basis points from 68 basis points to 26 basis points, again on a Y-o-Y basis.
Slippage ratio for the quarter was at 12 basis points, which when annualized comes to 48 basis
points.
The credit cost for the bank for this quarter was 9 basis points. I'd like to now take you through
some other operational and financial performance indicators of the bank. Our focus on MSME
loans continues. On a Y-o-Y basis, our business loans, improved to INR14,391 crores from
INR12,660 crores.
This number includes a INR554 crores charge-off. If you were to exclude the impact of this, that
amounts to a growth of 18% on a Y-o-Y basis. The gold loan business grew by 43% and now
stands at INR24,930 crores with an average LTV of 65.25% and an average ticket size of
INR2.94 lakhs.
Mortgage loans, home loans and auto loans are other areas of focus. On a Y-o-Y basis, we were
able to achieve 34% growth in mortgage loans, 19% growth in home loans and 34% growth in
auto loans. And these numbers exclude the impact of IBPC/DA that we may have entered into.
We will continue to maintain the momentum in disbursements and collections in the coming
quarters, and we aim to achieve the desired targets that we've set out for ourselves. As many of
you know, this is the last conference call that I will be attending in my current capacity as the
Managing Director and CEO of South Indian Bank.
So before I conclude and open the floor for questions, I'd like to thank all the folks on this call
for working together with us as we've built the franchise for South Indian Bank over the last 2
years and 9 months. During this period, we have made a very significant progress in terms of
new products, changes to existing products.
New systems so that we are able to do business better with our counterparties, significant
improvements to our processes, changes to our organizational structure, significant enhancement
in our capabilities that enable us to compete better. And all of this was possible because, a, I was
given this opportunity to be part of this organization for which I thank the Board and the others
who are responsible for it.
And I'd also like to thank all my colleagues within South Indian Bank who have afforded me the
trust and collaborated with me in making possible whatever progress that we've had over the last
2 years and 9 months. I'd also like to thank all of you on this call for your forbearance, for your
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July 17, 2026
advice, for your help in transitioning South Indian Bank from where it was to where it is today.
So with that, I'd like to open the floor for questions. Thank you very much once again.
Moderator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from
the line of Akshat Agrawal with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities.
Akshat Agrawal: Sir, if you can provide some color on what drove such a sharp decline in cost of deposits? Have
we absorbed all residual deposit repricing or is some left? And how much contribution was from
the very strong growth in CASA during this quarter? And Sir, similarly on the asset side, what
drove the better yield on advances? Was it better shift -- was it a shift towards the better yielding
retail MSME and Mid-Corp or was there something else? And overall, sir, what's the outlook
for the margin going forward? That was my first question, sir?
P. R. Seshadri: Thank you, Akshat. I think basically, we've been working on our cost of deposit a while and a
substantial chunk of our liability base -- sorry, we are getting some kind of background noise.
Moderator: Yes, it's been managed. Please go ahead.
P. R. Seshadri: Okay. As you are all aware, the interest rate cycle changed when RBI started cutting repo rates.
At which point in time, we started marking down our deposit rates as well. And during the period
from the first quarter and the second quarter of this year, so I'm saying from January of this year
to June of this year.
A very substantial portion of our high rate deposits actually rolled off and repriced downwards
by anywhere between 40 to 60 basis points. And that in large measure is what is reflected in the
significant reduction in our cost of funding. There's also a very significant impact that is coming
from the increased CASA balances that we have.
The good news is that our average CASA balances grew 119%,I'm sorry, grew 19% -- so they
went from 100% to 119%. And that, in turn, has helped manage our cost of funding. And the
final element that helped us manage our cost was the fact that our the bulk deposits rolled off.
So we basically dropped bulk deposits by 50% from where they were a year ago. And if you're
overfunded, then you end up having -- paying x on the deposit and then receiving Y when you
place the money overnight with Reserve Bank of India. So the arbitrage losses that we were
suffering was reduced very considerably.
So there was a lot of active management on the funding side that enabled us to do all of this. But
the principal reason is the fact that the higher cost deposits rolled off. Now your question was,
will it continue going forward? I suspect that a substantial portion of the repricing impact is
already baked in.
Going forward, there may be this kind of sharp reduction is quite unlikely. And the second part
of your question was how did we get the 5 basis points increase in our asset yields or asset --
that was largely driven by a shift in mix. And we were also helped by the fact that our corporate,
a portion of our corporate book is linked to T-bills and T-bills moved up very sharply during
this period. So there was a mixture of various things that happened, change in mix, us being on
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July 17, 2026
the right side of the rate cycle movement, all of that helped to get the yield on assets up. So I
hope this answers your question. If there is NIM, you want a guidance?
Akshat Agrawal: Right. Yes.
P. R. Seshadri: So with respect to NIM guidance, what I would like to say is that when the rates were going
down, we were perhaps the most impacted bank because we give effect to a repo rate change on
a T+1 basis. So if rates go down, we are the most impacted. And the logic for us to adopt that
was, a, it's in line with RBI's policy of rate transmission and so on and so forth.
But equally importantly, if you are the first one to be impacted, you're also likely to be the first
one to take action to counter the impact of the change. And so now we are in a position where
our belief is the rate cycle has switched. So it's more likely to increase than to reduce. And if
that belief is right, then our view is that the NIMs from here should harden as the repo rate
changes come into effect. So while I cannot give a guidance on the number, all I can say is that
we are reasonably well positioned with respect to NIM. And we do expect that the outcomes for
us during the year will be positive.
Akshat Agrawal: My second question is on opex. The bank has resumed employee hiring and branch expansion
this quarter. So do you expect further hiring and branch addition for the rest of the year? And
how should we think about the cost going forward?
P. R. Seshadri: It's a very good question. We are in a very small way restarting branch rollout. Essentially
because we had frozen almost everything for the last 3 years. So in fact, we had reduced our
branch count by a little bit, and we are now coming back to where we were. The branch rollout
this time is going to be in very key locations for us.
We think that we are going to make better choices in terms of where to put the branches and our
whole process of managing the branch rollout in such a fashion that we get outcomes that we
want, which is revenues to come reasonably quickly after the expenses crystallize is something
that we are working on.
So the idea is to be very, very careful as to where we put the branches and how we get them to
actually be accretive to ourselves. So at this point in time, there is no significant change in our
process. We think that we should be able to manage our costs quite tightly going forward. As an
institution, we are aiming to get operating leverage, positive operating leverage.
So the last 2 years, we've demonstrated positive operating leverage. This quarter, we do not have
it. But for the full year, our aim is to get full positive operating leverage. And I think the traction
that we have on NIMs, the traction that we have on business lines in general gives us some
confidence that whilst the costs will increase a little bit, our total revenues will increase more
and consequently, pre-provisioning operating profit should actually increase. I'm going to
request our CFO, Vinod Francis, to give you further details if you so desire.
Vinod Francis: I concur to the points what MD Seshadri sir has mentioned. We are not expecting that any
significant increase in the opex that to come in the current year to materially alter the P&L
structure. We should be within the range of, say, maybe 5%-6% in that range.
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Akshat Agrawal: My last question is on Fee, sir. It has been a little bit soft declining Q-o-Q. And other income,
which includes the bancassurance and recoveries were on a lower side. So what would be the
outlook for the rest of year? Can we expect fee recovery this year or will it -- is it more of like
FY20 agenda? And within others, how did banca trended versus the recovery, sir?
P. R. Seshadri: What was the last question versus recovery? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.
Akshat Agrawal: Yes. So there's another part of the noninterest income where we put bancassurance as well as
the recovery income. So I wanted to understand what's like how both are trending, as in, is
bancassurance income increasing and recoveries coming down, something like that happening
over there?
P. R. Seshadri: So to answer your question, a, firstly, we think that this is a one-off. We were very busy working
on our NIMs, and we were not laser-focused on fees. So we will start our -- renew our focus on
this element. And we do not see this as a trend. I think we should be able to address this going
forward.
We are also working on a series of new systems, which will enable us to participate in other
products more effectively. So our trade and FX platform, we are hoping will go live by end of
September with all capabilities. So it will enable our customers to do everything electronically
with us, FX bookings, LCs, guarantees.
The ability to send money overseas, receive money from overseas or everything being done
electronically, settling the export bills, import bills, all of that. So currently, we -- on the FX
side, we have limited revenues, but you can see from our presentation that our revenues, whilst
they are limited, have been growing at 40%, 50% year-on-year.
So with these new systems coming in place, business volumes will grow and revenues will also
grow. So with respect to fees, my own view is that it's a one-timer. We shouldn't read this as
something that is going to last forever. It is something that we can work out of. It is perhaps
because we were focused on other elements, and we did not focus on this as much as we should
have.
The second question was how much was -- the first quarter of any financial year is traditionally
a softer year, softer quarter when it comes to recoveries. So our recoveries for the quarter were
around -- was approximately INR170 crores, INR179 crores in reality. And our slippages were
INR120-odd crores, INR128 crores.
So the difference between slippage and recoveries was lower than normal and a small proportion
of that comes in as revenue into the revenue line, which would have been significantly lower
than the numbers that we've had historically. But to give you the exact number, I'll request Vinod
Francis to walk you through the numbers.
Vinod Francis: With regard to the recovery side, if you see we had the recovery from technical write-off
accounts close to 60 crores and that remains like the last quarter, that is March quarter. So --
but on the other side, the contribution of the recovery towards the interest income is slightly
lower and because of the total recoveries are slighly lower when compared with the March
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quarter because this quarter, we had a total recovery of only INR179 crores which is lower than
March..
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Prashant Kumar with Sunidhi Securities & Finance.
Prashant Kumar: First of all congratulations sir, on a remarkable tenure of South Indian Bank. And under your
leadership, the bank has delivered a significant turnaround and we wish you all the very best for
your future endeavor. My first question is on corporate credit, I mean, asset side and corporate
credit has grown at a healthy pace over the past few quarters.
And with the corporate portfolio now accounting for around 40% of total loan book, but our
strategic objective was to reducing around 30%. So has the bank consciously recalibrated its
portfolio mix or do you still intend to gradually bring down the book to around 30% over the
medium term?
P. R. Seshadri: So I think it's a very good question. Our aim in the long run is to bring corporate down. But
under the current circumstances, given the disturbances in West Asia and so on and so forth, our
belief is that high-quality corporates offer lower risk than some of the other segments we operate
in.
And the other thing that has happened was pricing on corporates had improved very dramatically
during the last quarter, especially for the shorter duration facilities. So we took advantage of that
because we already had credit lines on many large corporates. And given the fact that we had
liquidity, we chose to deploy it with the corporates because the view was that in an environment
which is uncertain.
Deploying money which is marginally accretive with low-risk counterparties was better than
trying to grow high-risk assets. And that's why corporate grew last quarter. The environment
hasn't changed very dramatically. The uncertainty associated with the Persian Gulf continues.
So our view now is that we will continue to look for opportunities on the corporate side.
As long as they are remunerative, we will engage with them. But long run, those balances will
be wound down. Please remember that these are all very short duration assets, and we have the
ability to wind them down practically at will. I mean it's not really at will, but they are short
duration, so they roll off very quickly.
And therefore, this is a onetime adjustment, which has occurred on account of environmental
conditions and also given the strengths that we have on the corporate side. I mean if we did not
have lines on these same counterparties, we would not have been able to grow this. But given
the fact that we had them and we had the liquidity and we were a little wary about credit risk
that is likely to hit us in the future, we took this opportunity. I trust I answered your question.
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Suraj Das with Sundaram Mutual Funds.
Suraj Das: I have three questions. But before that, sir, one clarification.
Moderator: Mr. Das, sorry for interrupting. We cannot hear you. Can you speak a little louder?
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Suraj Das: Is it better now?
Moderator: No. Can you speak a little more louder?
Suraj Das: Is it better now?
Moderator: Yes.
Suraj Das: I have three questions, but one clarification on this fee income that you were mentioning, there
was some one-off. But if I look at your core fee income line item, which is INR179 crores this
quarter, if I look at this trend in terms of, let say, ROA contribution, the contribution seems to
be coming down only, let's say, from 60 basis points to now 50 basis points for last 2, 3 quarters
consistently.
So if you can highlight what are the factors behind this weakness? I mean is this that the new
products that you are doing, you were more focused on, let's say, margin or yield rather than the
fee component. So the new products that you are doing are of lesser fee component. Is that the
plan?
So that is question one. Question two sir, in terms of employee cost, I think there was some one-
off in the last quarter in terms of actuarial thing of INR80 crores. It looks like that this quarter,
this has reversed fully while the G-SEC movement has been half of only the movement in 4Q.
So can you clarify that thing? The last 2 questions are, one on the credit cost.
So right now, I think on a run rate basis, you were 30, 35 basis points. After ECL, do you think
this could be the run rate or it can go up because eventually there is a higher requirement on the
SMA-1 plus 2. And sir, the last question is on FCNR B deposit growth. So this quarter it has
been good, I think 6% Q-o-Q growth.
Question is, sir, do you still think this kind of growth post June as well? Because I think there
are a lot of noises in terms of this leveraging talks within RBI and within central banks so and
so forth. So are you seeing that the growth remains good or it has come down or if you can give
some color? And also what is the landed cost of these deposits?
P. R. Seshadri: Okay. Those are a lot of questions. So let me answer the first one first, your question on fees.
Fee has basically multiple lines. One line, which is treasury and forex has been very, very muted
for us, as you can see. So it was very good in Q1 FY '26, but now it is -- Q4 FY '26, it was
actually zero.
Now we've recovered a little bit. We have INR44 crores, but it is 80% below what it was in Q1.
With respect to the core fee income, you are right in the sense that it has come off a little bit
from INR191 crores in Q4 down to INR179 crores, and it's a little lower than Q1 of FY '26,
which is INR188 crores -- and there are some technical reasons for it.
We seem to have changed some product setup on our system where when an account is renewed,
the way we renew it and the way we charge the fee by way of an oversight or by way of a change
in the process, it unfortunately resulted in lower fees being charged for a particular product.
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So that difference between INR191 crores and INR179 crores can in large part be sort of
attributed to that, which we will now fix going forward, and we should be able to change the
mix. And the other area where we have a reduction is in terms of recoveries, a portion of which
gets attributed to interest income because of the nature of the loan and where it is and the
quantum of recoveries that we get.
So as I told you, Q1 is lower than Q4 of last year, and it tends to improve as time goes along.
And therefore, my view is that this lower noninterest income line is an aberration, which will
get fixed as we move forward. So we are aware of it. We are addressing it. And our belief is that
this is something that we will be able to fix as we go forward.
The credit cost guidance, from a credit cost perspective, our cost was 9 basis points for the year
-- for the quarter. Slippage was 12 basis points for the quarter. Slippage is INR128 crores. We
think that our slippage will be in the neighborhood of INR500 crores to INR750 crores, INR800
crores will be the maximum slippage given the current trend lines that we can see, even assuming
that there is some deterioration on account of the West Asia problem.
And our recoveries will be in the neighborhood of INR800 crores to INR1,000 crores. So that's
the current view that we have. Obviously, we'll try and restrict the slippage to the maximum
possible. The exact credit cost that translates into our P&L is a factor of many -- is a function of
many things that go into it. We think that the 9 basis points that we currently have is probably
on a generous side. So hopefully, as we go forward, our credit costs will moderate from here, if
anything. But I'll turn this over to our CFO for a more detailed answer.
Vinod Francis: Thank you. With regard to the other income, just to touch upon one more thing in addition to
what MD was mentioning. So as you know, there is an element of one-off items if you compare
with the last year.
Moderator: Sorry for interrupting, speaker. Speaker, can you speak a little louder? Cannot hear you.
Vinod Francis: Am I audible now?
Moderator: Yes. Please go ahead. Thank you.
Vinod Francis: Just to add a few points on the other income side, apart from what MD was mentioning. So it is
with regard to the -- if you compare with the figures of Q1 of the last year, there are certain one-
off items you can see over there. There is one which MD has already mentioned with regard to
the treasury. Last year, Q1, we had a spectacular income from the treasury.
And apart from that, there was the income what we earned from sale of PSLC was there. So that
was amount close to around INR60 crores. So current year, we were not having that kind of
surplus to have that sale. So that is also one of the items which is not there as a one-off income
in the current quarter.
Then coming to the recovery side, from the recovery from the technical write-off accounts, we
are almost flat compared to the last quarter. It's almost INR57 crores current quarter and last
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quarter, it was INR60 crores. So it remains almost flat even though total recoveries have reduced
from Q4 to Q1.
In Q1, the total recovery is INR179 crores. But going forward, historically, if you see the
recovery pattern, the Q1 seems to be a little bit slower. And thereafter the more and more
recoveries to come in the coming quarters. And hopefully, we should be able to close to around
INR1,000 crores for the year.
Suraj Das: And sir, on the actuarial thing on the opex?
Vinod Francis: Yes. So the actuarial valuation as we mentioned last quarter, we had a write-back of around
INR80 crores. So this quarter, as you know that in the year beginning, we take the actuarial
valuation as a projection for the current year. And based on that, we started providing as normal.
So last year also, first quarter, if you see, we had a total actuarial contribution of around INR80
crores. And this year also, we had made a contribution of INR84 crores. So it is back to the
normal.
Suraj Das: Okay. And sir, last on the FCNR, I think is the growth good after June?
P. R. Seshadri: The growth has been robust, and we are participating actively on the FCNR scheme. We have -
- internally, our view is that as long as the price matches the price of liquidity within the country
in Indian rupee terms, we will price it at that level. So we are offering very attractive rates to our
customers, and we are seeing flows.
We believe that a vast amount of these flows will come in August and September because the
offer is open until September 30. So we are working with our rep office in Dubai. The Dubai rep
office, what it can do and what it cannot do has been an area of some focus with the Central
Bank of the UAE.
And we are engaging with all our -- with them to ensure that we operate to the maximum extent
possible and permissible under the law. And one area where we do have a concern is that we do
not have credit lines from external entities nor do we have an entity in GIFT City. So
consequently, offering leverage for us is not possible.
And therefore, by definition, the customers who at this point in time are placing deposits with
us are those who are placing unlevered deposits. While we are working with foreign banks to
get ourselves lines, but those have been -- those have not materialized as of this moment. So if
they do happen, then we will -- our volumes will materially change. But right now, the pace of
growth is good, and we are quite confident that we will get reasonable numbers.
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Parth Gutka with 360 One Capital.
Parth Gutka: Sir, I see security receipts have gone down on a Q-o-Q basis, and we would have recorded some
income on the same. So what was the quantum?
P. R. Seshadri: I'll request our CFO to answer that question. Security receipts, we got some INR40-odd crores
of cash.
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South Indian Bank Limited
July 17, 2026
Vinod Francis: Yes. So security receipts in the beginning of the year, we had a balance of INR119 crores and
we closed the quarter with a balance of INR72 crores. So there was a recovery of close to INR47
crores.
Parth Gutka: Yes, right, sir. But then we would have recognized it some portion of it in the P&L as well?
Vinod Francis: No, we don't have anything upside on that with the P&L side. It's only the recovery of principal.
P. R. Seshadri: So the upside was recognized when we recognized the SR itself. The entire SR was recognized
as an upside.
Parth Gutka: Okay. Fair enough, sir. And my second question was, if I look at the Q-o-Q growth within the
gold loan book, it's around 0.8% on a Q-o-Q basis. So what has actually happened in this quarter?
P. R. Seshadri: So there was a change in our process and policies, occasioned by the fact that the RBI had come
out with a circular on gold loans and which went into effect on the 1st of April. And as a
consequence, some of our other arrangements, which is basically where we were doing some
co-lending and where we had some portfolio purchases and so on and so forth.
Those ran off to the extent of almost INR270 crores or so. Our branch banking by itself grew
quite nicely. But because of the runoff on our bulk deals, the net growth was only the number
that you are talking about, which is roughly 80 basis points. But underlying core growth from
our branches is quite solid, and we are reasonably confident that going forward, you will see
material growth on the gold loan business.
Parth Gutka: Okay. And sir, my last question, SMA-1 and -2 both has gone up on a Q-o-Q basis by roughly
INR80 crores. Anything to read into it?
P. R. Seshadri: SMA-1 and -2 always increases in the first quarter from the fourth quarter. there's a seasonality
in it. And you can see it in the prior years also. So if you see March '24 versus June '24, you will
see that it goes up. And if you see March '25 versus June '25 also, you see the same trend line.
Nothing, as of this moment, we don't see anything -- sorry, -- as of this moment, we have -- we
don't see anything material in the changes. And we are -- we reviewed these numbers. We have
seen the constituents of SMA 1 and 2, and we believe that they are reversible and that they do
not materially add to the risk that we are carrying.
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Jai Mundhra from ICICI Securities.
Jai Mundhra: Sir, a few questions. Sir, first is ECL will also change the effective interest rate regime, right?
Have you done any working? Will this change the NII in any manner? Or will it -- or it is too
early to say or it does not change anything materially?
P. R. Seshadri: Do you want to answer that, Vinod?
Vinod Francis: So Jai, good afternoon. So with regard to the effective interest rate coming in as a part of ECL,
we don't expect that there will be any material change. Of course, the working is still on. We are
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South Indian Bank Limited
July 17, 2026
not in a position to give a concrete number. But initial workings reflect that there will not be any
material change to what we have currently.
Jai Mundhra: Right. And secondly, sir, this DICG insurance, there was -- now the banks are -- the insurance
repricing is not uniform. Does this change any outgo for insurance or this is status quo or was
there any benefit, if you can highlight that?
Vinod Francis: Yes. So we got benefited by that change. So if you have seen the numbers on a Q-o-Q basis,
there is a reduction of close to around INR10 crores over there.
Jai Mundhra: Sorry, reduction in percentage, it will be like 15% type reduction, right? for full year. Is that the
right understanding? Because that is a...
Vinod Francis: Yes.
Jai Mundhra: Okay, sure. So that is good. And lastly -- sorry, second lastly, one, sir, if you have any breakup
for this other income breakup into PSL, TW recovery and maybe FLDG and third party or
something just to understand the movement better of the non-core non-treasury fees.
Vinod Francis: Okay. So broadly as I earlier mentioned, this quarter we don't have any income on the PSL sale.
Jai Mundhra: Okay
Vinod Francis: That is obvious. Second thing, FLDG also currently we don’t have any FLDG income on any of
the products. Because earlier it was with the credit card and that has been done away with as
based on the RBI guidelines. So there is no FLDG as of now. So by and large, we don’t have
any one-off income in the P&L side for the current quarter compared to the last year or last
quarter.
Jai Mundhra: Okay. And TW recovery was around INR60 crores, right? Which is what you said.
Vinod Francis: Yes.
Jai Mundhra: Okay, sure. And just a small clarification, sir. I think you mentioned that because despite there
is a lot of -- I mean, this quarter had a chunky disbursement in corporate, but still the yield were
favorable. That is part of that is because of the T-bill movement, right? Or within corporate, you
think you have scope to improve the yield for the spread?
P. R. Seshadri: So it is a bit of both, Jai. I mean there was some of it was T-bill movement and some of it is the
market hardening. I mean liquidity was a little tighter, and therefore, we took advantage of it
and pricing to corporates went up. Otherwise, we wouldn't have grown the corporate book. So
it was opportunistic. It was available. Pricing was better. And on the retail side, prices were not
moving upwards. Whereas on the corporate, they were moving upwards quite considerably, and
there we took advantage of that.
Jai Mundhra: And just a small parting message. I mean, you have been there for the 3 years and you have
helped us a lot in understanding, explaining the bank. Wish you all the very best for your next
inning.
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South Indian Bank Limited
July 17, 2026
Moderator: The next question comes from the line of Rohit Ahuja with Lotuslion Venture.
Rohit Ahuja: With CRAR at 19.6% and legacy book cleaned up, what's the 3-year plan for deploying excess
capital? And where do we see ROEs sustaining on a steady-state basis?
P. R. Seshadri: So the plan for deploying excess capital very clearly is to grow the balance sheet at wherever
the market is growing plus 2%, a couple of percent above where the market is growing. And
also to change the asset mix a little bit. So our CRAR is also helped by the fact that we have a
large concentration of very low-risk assets where the capital charge is very low, but they also
have the problem of being lower yielding.
So as we move up the capital charge ladder, automatically, the spreads also improve for us. So
some of it will get utilized in as we originate more retail and MSME business, which is not
necessarily rated AAA. Where the capital charge will be closer to 100%, if not 150%. And that
will -- the risk density will increase as we start increasing all of this. So to answer your question
very simply, our balance sheet will grow. The constituents of the balance sheet will change and
the CRAR computation will change accordingly and capital will get used because the asset
structure has changed.
Rohit Ahuja: And guidance on ROEs?
P. R. Seshadri: We've been saying that we will -- we have a few levers for our financials. To manage our
financials. We have the ability to change the structure of our balance sheet on the asset side
while keeping a tight lid on our costs. So if you see our cost of money today, we believe that we
are amongst the better placed institutions in our peer set.
Obviously, we can't compete with the State Bank of India or any such other institution. But
amongst our peers, we have arguably amongst the better cost of money. So therefore, our aim
has been to grow our balance sheet at a rate at which we can continue to keep this advantage.
Whereas on the asset side, we try and move away from the lower-yielding assets and move it
into the higher-yielding assets.
So I think as we do that, our return on assets will improve from where we are today. We had
said that we'd be in the 100 to 110, 115 range. Over time, that should sort of migrate to 120, 125.
And given our leverage, you can compute the return on equity automatically. So that's the trend
line that we see as of this moment. I'm hesitant to give you a more concrete answer considering
that I'm nearing the end of my tenure. And therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to proffer
something which binds my successor.
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Ravindra, an Individual Investor.
Ravindra: My question is to Mr. P.R. Seshadri. Thank you, sir, for serving 3 years and all the best for your
next innings. But my only question is why don't South Indian Bank is having a leadership
stability? Previously, Mr. Murali also left in 3 years, and you're also leaving in 3 years?
P. R. Seshadri: Mr. Ravindra. Thank you very much for the question. I cannot really answer for Mr. Murali's
decisions. I can only say that I was initially also in my mind, I did not see this. I'm leaving as a
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July 17, 2026
consequence of the fact that I believe that I want to do other things with my time. And
considering my age, I believe that there comes a point in time when you have to lay down some
of these roles and move into others. And that's the reason why I'm moving on. I can't really
address the actions taken by others, Mr. Ravindra.
Ravindra: Okay, sir. And my next question is on the net interest income. So this quarter, it has grown very
nicely. Is it sustainable in the coming quarters as well? Will this run rate go on?
P. R. Seshadri: I will request our CFO to address that question.
Vinod Francis: So if you see the growth in the net interest income for the current quarter as we already
mentioned in the call, we had a couple of advantages which we derived from the repricing of
bulk of deposits. And apart from that, another strategy what we implemented is that to reduce
the bulk deposit by almost 50%. So this advantage what we got from the repricing of deposits
may not be there in the same quantum in the coming quarters.
So of course, we continue to ensure that the net interest income holds. And at the same time
another leverage that can come in favor of the bank is that, as we mentioned in the call that in
case if the interest rate cycle moves up and the repo rate increases, definitely, that also will work
in favor of the bank as we pass on this repo change on T plus 1 basis to the customers. So that
is also expected to be in favor of the bank over the period.
Moderator: Next question comes from the line of Aman from ICICI Securities.
Aman: Can you spell out the loan outstanding for retail as a whole segment and retail gold?
P. R. Seshadri: Aman, I think I'll request my team to give you the numbers. It's not available with me right away,
but we can give you the numbers. Those are available in general.
Aman: Yes. Sure, sir. And I'll request you or Dolphy sir can speak about the prospect of MSME growth
and MSME segment loan growth.
P. R. Seshadri: I'll request Dolphy to walk you through that.
Dolphy Jose: Good afternoon, Aman. MSME yes, there has been -- the growth has been a little muted from
our expectation. We were actually well poised for this quarter, last quarter for scale.
Unfortunately, there was too many uncertainties, which probably gave us a caution to go a little
slow.
But having said that, the fraternity has reacted as business as usual, and that's giving us some
confidence to make sure that this quarter, we will go back to the scale mode. And we intend to
keep our narrative intact on the changing the balance sheet mix from shrinking the corporate and
increasing our contribution to the advance book from better yielding assets, specifically MSME.
That narration continues. So I can only reassure you that we are on the narrative and the right
direction.
Aman: And sir, what would be disbursement under the ECLGS scheme?
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July 17, 2026
Dolphy Jose: We have limit set of about INR400 crores as of date and disbursement of about INR238 crores
exactly. But utilization is where we struggle. I think we have a book of -- utilized book of about
INR50-odd crores. So that is yet to fructify, but we are on it. So I think we're looking at
progressively increasing that ECLGS contribution to the book.
Aman: Got it, sir. And just the last question, if you can give me breakup of upgrades, recoveries and
write-offs during the quarter, if that is readily available?
P. R. Seshadri: I'll request Vinod and Prashant to give you the numbers.
Vinod Francis: Aman, with regard to the recovery side, the total recoveries for the current quarter was INR179
crores. And out of that, technical write-off recovery from technical write-off accounts is close
to around INR60 crores. And interest on NPA that contributes to the net interest income as a part
of recovery that is close to around INR40 crores.
Aman: Got it, sir. Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you. On behalf of South Indian Bank, that concludes this conference. Thank you for
joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.
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