Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Union Bank of India Earnings Conference call for the period ended December 31st, 2024. The bank is represented by the Managing Director and CEO, Ms. A. Manimekhalai, Executive Directors, Sri Nitesh Ranjan, Sri Ramas ubramanian S., Sri Sanjay Rudra, Sri Pankaj Dwivedi, and other members of the top management. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. And I'll hand the conference over to Mr. Ajay Bansal, Deputy General Manager. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Bansal. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I, Ajay Bansal, Head of Investor Relations, welcome you all for the Union Bank of India Earnings Conference for the period ended December 31st, 2024. The structure of the conference shall include a brief opening statement by respected MD and CEO, ma'am, and then the floor will be open for interaction. Before getting into the conference, I will read our usual disclaimer statement. I would like to submit that certain statements that may be discussed during the Investor Relations interaction may be forward-looking statements based on the current expectations. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainty, and other factors that cause the actual result to differ from the statement. Investors are therefore requested to check this information independently before making any investments or other decisions. With this, I now request our respected MD and CEO, ma'am, for her opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am. Thank you, Bansal. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Union Bank's financial results announcement for the third quarter ended December 31st, 2024. Thank you for joining us today. I am sure that you have had the opportunity to review our results. We are navigating to a challenging macroeconomic landscape characterized by tight liquidity conditions, which is eased a little by the Reserve Bank of India yesterday, moderating urban demand, uncertainty arising from global developments, volatility in the Indian rupee, and capital outflows. These factors are exerting pressure on the banking industry. However, positive developments such as a recovery in rural demand, driven by higher agriculture growth, and gradually easing inflationary pressures are expected to support economic growth. Moving to the bank's performance, we remain steadfast in our commitment to sustainable growth with a balanced focus on top-line and bottom-line performance. Our strategy prioritizes profitability and operational efficiency over aggressive growth. The bank delivered a strong performance in key areas such as asset quality, capital adequacy, and profitability, ensuring long-term value creation for all its stakeholders. Let me now review the financial highlights for Q3FY25. The net profit reached INR 4,704 crore, marking a 28.2% year-on-year growth. For the nine months ended December 2024, net profit stood at INR 13,002 crore, registering 25.8% growth year-on-year compared to the full-year FY24 profit of INR 13,648 crore. Return on assets improved to 1.3%, and ROE reached 17.75%. Capital adequacy stood at 22% with a CET1 ratio of 13.59% as of December 2024. The asset quality. Gross NPA reduced by 98 basis points YoY to 3.85%. Net NPA improved by 26 basis points to 0.82%. Provision coverage ratio increased by 88 basis points. Yes? Ma'am, to interrupt you, ma'am, your voice is breaking. Kindly wait, I'll just reconnect your line, ma'am. Yeah, please. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, please stay connected while we reconnect with management. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. You now have the line. The management has reconnected. Ma'am, you may go ahead. Yeah, should I start from the beginning? No, ma'am, you can continue from where you stopped. Yeah, okay. I was talking about asset quality, so gross NPA reduced by 98 basis points YoY to 3.85%. Net NPA improved by 26 basis points to 0.82%. Provision coverage ratio increased by 88 basis points to 93.42%. Credit cost stood at 63 basis points, and the slippage ratio improved to 89 basis points. Let me just give you the update on the guidance that we had made to the market. While profitability and asset quality metrics remain in line with our expectations, there has been a moderation in the business growth this quarter. This is largely due to our conscious decision to shed high-cost wholesale deposits, which impacted terminal growth numbers. As a result, deposit growth has moderated to 3.8%. However, our growth in advances has also remained at 5.9%. In terms of averages, both deposits and advances grew sustainably YoY by 7.6% and 10.9%, respectively, reflecting resilience in our business expansion. We now anticipate achieving growth closer to the lower end of our guidance for deposits and advances. Now, other highlights on our guidance: NIM for the nine months ended December 2024 stood at 2.94%, well within our guidance range of 2.823%. Notably, on a QOQ basis, NIM improved by one basis point. GNPA, which is currently at 3.85%, is already below the 4% FY target achieved ahead of the schedule. With regard to slippages and recovery, gross slippage for the nine months stood at INR 9,506 crore, and net slippages are around INR 8,941 crore, while gross recoveries reached INR 10,789 crore, aligning with our annual guidance and demonstrating our commitment to maintaining recoveries consistently higher than slippages. I will now give you a brief on the significant developments during the quarter. The bank has opened five Nari Shakti branches in Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Vijayawada on November 9, 2024, by the Honorable Finance Minister, which aims to support women entrepreneurs and provide tailored resources to foster growth and job creation. On our 106th Foundation Day, we launched several innovative initiatives, including the Union Current Account STP, Union Digital Contact Center, Union MSME Superfast STP, Union CBDC Accessibility Initiative for the visually challenged, and the Union Green Home Initiative. We have added 146 branches in the current financial year, taking the total branch network to 8,574. We have expanded our clientele by opening 32 lakh CASA accounts in the first nine months of FY 2025, including 2.42 lakh premium accounts. To conclude, the bank remains steadfast in navigating challenges while delivering sustainable growth and value for stakeholders. With a focus on innovation, operational excellence, and customer-centric initiatives, we are confident in our ability to drive long-term success. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephones. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from the line of Jai Mundhra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Jai, may I request to unmute your line and go ahead with your question, please? Jai Mundhra, may I request to unmute your line and go ahead with your question, please? Did you not respond? We move on to the next participant. Next question is from the line of Ashok Ajmera from Ajcon Global. Please go ahead. Hello. Am I audible? Yes, you're audible, sir. Go ahead. Yeah, ma'am. Good results, ma'am, as you yourself said. On the performance of the bank is concerned on the asset quality side, and even to a great extent on the recovery targets also. But, ma'am, we are really going down on the business front, both deposits and credits. And our performance is a little lower than other of the other, especially the PSU PSBs, which have declared their results. I mean, we are much below them in this nine months' performance. So now, some people have started a little bit downgrading our stock and our future prospects. So I would just like to know, though you touched upon in this opening remark, you yourself said that our business growth is lower than the target. But going forward in future, not just in one quarter of the remaining quarter of this FY25, but what do you think? I mean, the previous levels or the targeted levels will come back again soon, or there is really a major slowdown in the economy and the growth path, and we may not regain the past glory again? So my first question is on that, ma'am. Regarding the macroeconomic landscape, our economist will now give you a brief. However, as far as the bank is concerned, as I told you in the beginning with my opening remarks, we are committed to a sustainable growth with a balanced focus on top-line and bottom-line numbers. Our strategy, of course, as I've been mentioning in all the quarters, we profitability rather than excessive growth. My total or the bank's total focus is to create long-term value creation for the stakeholders rather than making small glories. Now, if you look at the way we have done it, we have shed almost like more than INR 30,000 crore in bulk deposits to improve our cost of deposits number and see that our NIM is not impacted. The deposit growth moderated. We had strategically reduced the numbers. We shed those numbers, bulk deposit. Many things that the bank has taken is to drive home the point that we are looking at sustainable numbers and not a small blip in whatever we do. I will now ask Kanika to give you a brief on the overall macroeconomic scenario. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Ajmera, for the question. Sir, I have three quick points. First and foremost, of course, we acknowledge your concern, but if you look at every banker on the street when they've come out with their post-earnings call, one stream of thought is very clear that the macro environment is very challenging, sir, and if you see the same period last year when we would have had this call, we would have said that at least for the next 12 months, even RBI was talking about a growth number of 7-7.5%. They downgraded it to 6.5%. Government is at 6.4%. So the RBI and the government have also acknowledged that there is a growth slowdown in the economy, and the economy needs some oiling in that regard. So second point is just on the macro front. So what is the concern is that the nominal GDP growth for two consecutive years is below the double-digit mark, and in an economy like India, nominal GDP growth drives credit growth. So credit growth, same period last year was 15%-16% excluding the merger effect. Now it's trending at 11%-12% number. So there has been an upgrade in terms of credit growth numbers because of overall growth coming under pressure. It's not just because of domestic factors. Global economic uncertainty also remains, which has got exacerbated under Trump 2.0 since November. So last point from the banker's perspective and why is it, why the economy and not just that, the financial system needed some oiling, even the liquidity side, sir. Same period last year, we kept talking about deposit growth being higher than credit growth. We needed structure and liquidity. Then, post-Trump 2.0, we got some INR five lakh crore of outflows on account of FX. So, we started. There were a lot of concerns raised. Of course, liquidity came under pressure. And in that regard, I would say, now ending on a positive note and an optimistic note in terms of outlook, sir, and we are very sure that it will hold something good for our bank as well. So, RBI, yesterday, the kind of suite of liquidity measures they have given are signaling that they are paying heed to our bankers' liquidity wounds. And INR 1.5 lakh crores is a big amount given. On the other hand, sir, now from the budget also, we expect that while the government stays committed to the roadmap, they will do something more to stimulate the economy. And it looks like that private CapEx recovery, which is still not base case, will see some incentives coming in to boost overall growth that will lead to more business growth and eventually bank growth as well. So something to look forward to in the next 10 days itself, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ma'am, my second question is on the income side, the non-interest income, and especially the recovery from the written-off accounts. Yeah, I mean, that is some area, the overall recovery plus recovery from written-off accounts plus other components of the other income. There, I think if you can give some picture that at least on profitability front, like this operating profit also, this quarter was a little under pressure. So going forward, do we have some more chances of making profit? Other income includes recovery from the written-off account, treasury income, and some other components of the income. Yeah. Yeah. So on the non-interest income side, as you're aware, we have been showing a consistent growth. So our year-on-year growth is about 25%. Our corporate income is up by about 26% year-on-year. Treasury income is also growing nicely at about 23% year-on-year. Recoveries, again, have shown a higher trend year-on-year. So that's at about 32% higher. So you can see that we are looking at various fronts as far as our non-interest income is concerned in terms of trying to get the maximum out of that. And we are quite comfortable that we will be able to show a similar trend going forward. So that is something that we continue to focus on and will continue to show growth going forward. Some color on the NCLT account and NARCL or other asset recovery companies, sale of the assets, recovering some good amount on that in this quarter so as to make this year at least a good year for profitability point of view. Ajmera ji, good morning. Good morning. Anjali, good morning. I am Sanjay Rudra here. In NCLT accounts, this quarter, our recovery is slightly low as compared to the last year, December quarter. We are able to recover INR 94 crores in NCLT accounts as against the INR 1,674, but in the current quarter, we are hopeful that some improvement will happen. As far as the ARC sale is concerned, last year, the number was zero, but this year, it has improved, and it is INR 344 crores, so if you see the total guidance which we have given for INR 16,000 crores of recovery for the current financial year, out of that, already, we have achieved almost INR 10,800 crores, INR 400 crores of recovery, and the balance amount of INR 5,500 crores recovery will happen in the current quarter, so we are very much hopeful that we will be able to meet the recovery target. Already, the rate of recovery is better than last year. We will see that it improves further. It will add to our other operating income. Other income, it will add to our other income. Sir, this INR 345 crores is the total recovery? I mean, out of this, only 15% is the cash component, isn't it, this asset recovery company? No, no, no. That's slightly different. Now, the ARC sale, we are not going for any haircut. It is a pure cash basis. So this 345 is a whole full recovery on cash basis. Cash basis. Okay, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. I'll come back again if time permits. Thank you and all the best. Thank you. Thank you, Ajmera, Ji. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Aditi Naval from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have a few questions. First, with respect to the interest on RBI balance, other bank balance line items, so that has dropped significantly Q2 as well as YOY. So anything that you'd like to call out on that line item? Yes, madam. This is mainly because of the drawing down our bulk deposit and liquidity tightness. We are not done much arbitrage activity. That is why it has come down by 187 crores. Otherwise, it is on par with the earlier quarters also. If the liquidity improves and opportunity comes up, definitely, we will add it and improve our performance in that cash balance. Got it. Sir, then second question was with respect to the effective tax rate. This quarter came down to around 21%. So is there any tax reversal or anything that we've gotten? No, obviously, we keep revisiting our income tax provisions from time to time. So you'll see that on an average, our effective tax rate is about 24%-25%, which is in line with what the regulations are in terms of income tax. So it is just that this quarter, we just revisited some of our estimates, and that's the reason why you see an effective tax rate of 22%. Got it. And also, just one last question on the SMA. So SMA 2 has increased from 1,654 crores in September to 5,500 crores in this quarter. So is it that same account that we were referring to last quarter, which was an SMA 0, which was around 5,000-odd crores, and that has flipped into SMA 2? Yeah. This is only one account, actually, which was on SMA 2, for which also we earlier told that we already made the adequate provisions also in standard asset. We have to make the provision, but for your kind information, as of today, the amount is recovered. Okay. So this amount will go back to being standard in the current quarter? Yeah. Okay. That will be it from my side. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rakesh Kumar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Hi, ma'am. Thanks. Can you hear us? Yeah, we can hear you. Yeah, ma'am. So the first question was with respect to the interest income accrual due to the recoveries. So I think that number previous year was approximately INR 3,065 crores, and that number has fallen to INR 1,750 crores in the nine months. So any comment that you can offer or any clarification that you can offer, ma'am? Total 700. Last year, for nine months, recovery was around INR 2,223 crores, and full year, it was around INR 3,065 crores. But this year, in the first nine months, our recovery is only INR 1,738 crores, which is almost INR 500 crores short of last year's numbers. But we are working on that, and we are hopeful that the recovery of the interest will also improve. But interest recovery on NPA account is not through the OTS because we have a policy wherein whatever the recovery comes through the SARFAESI and all is first adjusted towards the recovery of interest. So last year, actually, SARFAESI action was more effective. This year, we have done some of the sales, but the realization has not yet happened, which will have effective in this current quarter. So I'm hopeful that that number will also improve and we'll be able to meet our expected number of around INR 2,500 crores for the current quarter. Secondly, ma'am, with respect to our discount rate on the AS15 estimation, we have, I think, discount rate at 7.5% as of March 2024. I'm not sure if we have changed that number during the nine months. If it is the case, kindly clarify. And with the 10-year G-Sec having come down to 6.7% and around, would we have to reduce the discount rate for the AS15 calculation in the March quarter? And if that is the case, how would the defined benefit obligation number look like in the fourth quarter employee expenses number, ma'am? Yeah. So on that, on the AS15 assumptions, we are in touch with the actuary. So even for the December quarter, we did speak with the actuary before looking at what numbers should be booked. So we have taken into effect what the actuary told us. We will again revisit this in March and finalize the numbers. But we are quite comfortable with the numbers that we booked based on the discussions that we've had with the actuary. And no change in the assumptions right now. Sure, sir. Just one last question, sir. Our credit group guidance is 11%-13%, and ma'am mentioned that we were looking at lower end of the guidance band. We have done 5.6% in the nine months. So are we expecting that another 5% we can do just in one quarter, in fourth quarter? Would it be feasible in this market? See, even though my terminal numbers, if you look at the terminal numbers, my gross advances is at 5.9%. That's about 6%. But if you look at my average number growth, it's almost like 10%. That is the way the advances numbers have grown. I also have a pipeline of about INR 75,000 crores sanction limits with me. And out of that, pending for disbursement is close to about 36,000, and pending for sanctions is around INR 39,700 crores. We are getting very good traction from real estate, road, power, data centers, and other such sectors. My RAM portfolio is equally quite aggressive, and we are hoping to grow a good number. And plus with the kind of stance that RBI has taken, so we hope to improve the advances portfolio also in this quarter. Sure, ma'am. Sure. Thanks, ma'am. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mahrukh Adajania from Nuvama Wealth. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hello. I had a few questions. Firstly, last quarter, because there was a big slippage of a lumpy telecom account, there was a sharp reversal. There would have been a sharp reversal in interest income as well, right? And even with that, so which wouldn't have been in this quarter. So even on that base, NIM has declined on lower growth, right? Obviously, because of tight liquidity and, as you explained, recovery interest being lower. But given that now, possibly neutral liquidity may last, and maybe the theme for the future quarters, do you expect your NIM to recover from current levels? I know you're following our guidance, but this is just like a discussion from the current quarter to where we see NIMs going ahead, right? Because maybe the tight liquidity impacted NIMs, but do you see it recovering? Because last quarter itself, there was a lot of pressure from a big NPL, and also, if you could call out separately the arbitrage income this quarter versus last quarter. Okay. My first question. So we have guided for the NIM of, if you remember, 2.823% for FY25. Our current NIM for December quarter is at 2.91%. And if you look at QOQ, we have improved our NIM by one bit. And this is because we had maintained our cost of deposit. Our yield on also improved by about eight bits. We had taken a lot of measures. We controlled and efficiently managed our bulk deposits. On the yield front, also, there was an increase in average advances. All this has helped us in keeping the NIM above whatever the numbers that we had given. So going forward, also, I do not want to change my stand of 2.823%. We are looking to improve our NIMs to further amount, further numbers. And what is the second? As far as arbitrage is concerned, due to the tight liquidity condition and setting up our bulk deposit, we took a risk arbitrage opportunity. As and when this quarter, if the liquidity issues happen and we have a surplus fund, definitely, we will look for a better opportunity and increase the arbitrage income during this quarter. It is hardly down to 180 crores only. Sorry, it is? 180 crores only down. 180 crores lower than the last quarter? Yes, yes. Okay. Okay. Got it. And what would be the reversal on interest income last quarter and this from NPLs? Hello? There's not much of reversal. It is a very minuscule number that we have been able to reverse. Reversing on NPL? Yes. Very small number. But last quarter, it would have been a bigger number? So yeah. I mean, it's almost the same, Mahrukh, quarter on quarter. So if you look at the December quarter, the dummy ledger recovery is 600 crores. Only on NPL? Reversal, yes. Not much numbers. It's very small. But Mahrukh, I'll give you that number offline. Okay. And then just a clarity on that SMA thing, which has already been recovered. So I guess in last quarter's discussion, also, we said that the lumpy SMA loan was upgraded. So after it got at the time of last quarter results, so after it got upgraded, it got downgraded again, and now it's paid. Is that the way to look at it? No, no, no. See, last quarter, also, see, that was continuously in SMA, actually speaking. Sometimes, it goes to SMA 2 also. That's what has happened in December. But as you know, we all know the account. So because of some funding from equity has come, and the overdues with other banks have been updated, has been fully cleared by the company. So it was never downgraded. SMA itself is downgraded. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Next question is from the line of Jai Mundhra from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, sir. So just on this SMA, so did I hear it correctly that the exposure itself has run down now, right? Or it is just that the account has become normal? No, that's what the overdue only has been run down. The exposure still remains. Okay. Sure. Overdue has been fully cleared. Right, right, right. Okay. And sir, ma'am, on your loan growth, right, so somebody was also asking that even if you were to match your loan growth guidance at the lower end, it will be a steep ask. You mentioned that you have a decent corporate pipeline sanctions and amount to be disbursed. But again, then you will also face the same challenge, right, that cost of deposit is still hard, and you may have to fund those corporate loans by TD or maybe bulk, which will not help on the margin fund. So I mean, what is the way out in the sense that it looks like a Catch-22 situation that CASA growth is not happening, and hence, you're not growing corporate as much? So that may continue for a while, right? Is that the understanding, or how do you want to get out of this? See, if you look at the way we have done in this quarter, we have consciously reduced our bulk, which is at a higher cost, and also, if you look at my average advances growth, has also remained quite good at 10, 10 and a half%. And now, looking at the pricing, on most of my advances that are on the book now is at MCLR pricing and not at the T-Bill pricing, so as and when there is a requirement to fund, we have also seen a good growth in my retail deposit front. I have seen some good growth happening in the last nine months for the various steps that we have taken. My retail term deposit has also grown by about 8% and with an absolute growth of about INR 36,000 crores. Now, and with this also, and with a little bit of easing of liquidity measures that the Reserve Bank of India has also taken, we are sure that we will be able to fund our advances growth. Okay. And ma'am, if you can comment on. Yeah, go ahead. So, Jai, hi. Good afternoon, Jai. Yeah, ma'am. Yeah, ma'am. So, hi. Here are two points. First of all, it's not as if bankers are in a Catch-22 situation. Even from the macro perspective, you know that everybody is looking at sources of funds because even now, credit growth is running higher than deposit growth. And of course, why they are scouting for funds? But apart from deposits, everybody is looking at alternative sources of funds. So we also have our own avenues for the same that fund. Second, as liquidity eases and RBI signals, they are on a path to monetary easing because they also want to contribute, in fact, do the heavy lifting on growth. So when the cycle switches, we all know that we will get some salutary effect on CASA as well in the coming months. It may not be as much because of shift in savings profile. So first, alternative sources of funds. We are also looking for some. And second, on CASA, maybe some salutary relief in the coming months as the cycle shifts. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Kanika, ma'am. And actually, the broader point I was trying to understand was this NII growth now has become 1% YOY, right? And assuming no rate cut change, I mean, no change in the rate cut, you believe it will remain like this only, I mean, without any policy action, or do you think it can inch up maybe? I think the main source of the bank comes from interest income, NII only. And we have seen a little bit of growth, QOQ also, and YOY in our interest income. And with the easing of the liquidity numbers and with the yields coming down, probably with the rate cut, we are sure that we will be maintaining our interest income with the higher growth, positive growth in our advances. That's one thing. But if you look at the bank, it is also doing very well in the non-interest income part. We have shown a very good growth, almost 17% in the last three months, and YOY growth of about 25% in our non-interest income. Core fee-based income has also grown by about 26%, and recovery income is also recovery in written-off accounts, dummy ledger recovery. All this will also factor in, and we hope to keep our net interest income at the steady growth pace. Right. And then secondly, on SME and AGRI, right? So while corporate may have very fine pricing, but SME and AGRI, the largest PSU bank is delivering very steady growth on SME and AGRI both, and other private banks are also delivering. What is actually impacting the slower growth in both these two segments? I will tell you about MSME. Of course, the growth has been muted because of two factors. One is, of course, many of my about INR 5,000 crores of my MSME book moved, were upgraded to my mid-corporate segment. They were moved into the corporate because of the turnover and the other issues. And then secondly, about close to about INR 12,000 crores of my MSME book, we had to declassify because of URN number not happening. So these are the two reasons because there was a little bit of rundown on my MSME book, which I'm sure that we will be able to make up during the current year. With regard to the AGRI portfolio, it is showing a growth now as of now. The season has just started picking up. We had a lot of many governments coming up with debt waiver and all those things, and that is why there was no growth in my AGRI sector, which we hope that we will be able to do during the current quarter. This MSME reclassification was during the quarter, right? Or it was at the beginning of the year? Yeah, it was during the quarter. December Q3 quarter, it was done, declassification. Okay. Sure. Declassification and upgradation. Right, right. And ma'am, on gold loan, if you can quantify how much is your total gold loan, how much is AGRI gold, and how much is retail gold? And is there any impact because RBI has revised the gold loan circular asking for product changes, a lot of changes on LTV, and maybe the rollover and renewal policies? Yeah. My total gold loan portfolio is to the extent of about INR 81,000 crores. Out of that, AGRI gold is about INR 60,000 crores. And of course, yes, RBI has come out with the guidelines with regard to LTV for both agriculture and non-agriculture loans. We are able to feel the impact of those guidelines by the RBI. But however, we have been doing well. We have opened large number of gold loan accounts during the last few quarters, and we hope to match those numbers, and the portfolio will grow in a very healthy manner. Ma'am, I have one more question on PL, personal loan, unsecured personal loan. How much is the exposure, and what was it last quarter? I mean, how it has grown in the last one, two quarters? And if you have. Lending to personal loans is about INR 12,800 crores. Not much of a variation here. In fact, we have, if you look at my growth, it has actually declined by almost 1%. So there has been a degrowth in my personal loan portfolio. And if you have the GNPA number in this book, the outstanding GNPA or. NPA numbers stand about 1.8% in this personal loan segment. Sure, ma'am. And lastly, and the last question, ma'am, if you have the SMA number for MSME, because there was some, let us say, concern in the SME portfolio for banks, if you have the SMA 1 or SMA 2 figure for MSME portfolio of the entire bank for this quarter. Thank you so much. Do you have the numbers? SMA number for MSME is around 9,900 as a whole, and SMA 1 is 3,500, and SMA 2 is 4,600. Sure. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, Jai. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ashlesh Sonje from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Hi team. Good afternoon. Ma'am, first set of questions is on the deposit mobilization front. You have run down the bulk term deposits this quarter. How much of it do you think there is scope for further rundown here in this book? We have run down around INR 30,000+ crores, and brought down the percentage to 25.02%. That was a conscious call taken. We continue to stick to the 25% portion is from the bulk side. Got it. If I look at your deposit growth for the year, that is 9%-11%, but YTD growth is negligible. Do you think you might have to hike your term deposit rates to garner more deposits for the rest of the year? That is because of the shedding on the bulk deposit. As far as retail segment is concerned, we are at 8.5% level, and that is continually doing very well. Only because of shedding the number of bulk deposits, the percentage has come down. Got it. Do you plan to hike term deposit rates? That was the question. Markets are very competitive compared to other peer banks. We will look into the other banks' competitiveness. If required, we may look for. Okay. Got it, and sir, secondly, on the recovery. Yes, sir. Just to add to that retail term deposit, if you look at it, last year, our retail term deposit during the nine-month period, that is from April to December, the absolute growth was only INR 6,500 crores, and during the current year, that is from April to December 2024, the growth increase is around INR 22,000 crores, so already, our rate is very competitive in the market, and we are growing in the retail term deposit. Got it. Sir, secondly, on the recoveries front, you have guided for INR 16,000 crores for this year, and you indicated that you expect to achieve it. Do you think you have a pipeline which is large enough to do a ballpark similar recovery in the next year? The portfolio of recoverable amount is coming down year after year because last year, if you see, we have recovered INR 18,000 crores. This year, we are targeting for INR 16,000 crores. After this, also, we'll have a portfolio, but recoverability will come down. So we'll take a call in the month of March to what will be our target for the next financial year. 80,000 in the last month. Yeah. The majority of the accounts, almost INR 80,000 crores—INR 65,000-INR 80,000 crores—is in NCLT, where the resolutions are very slow pace. That also will be one of the guiding factors for recovery for the next year. Okay. And just lastly, you shared the GNPA ratio in the personal loans book at 1.8%. What was this number last quarter? It remained at the same level, 1.8%-1.9%. We are not growing very aggressively in the book. Understood, ma'am. Thank you. Those are all the questions. Thank you. Thank you. Next follow-up question is from the line of Ashok Ajmera from Ajcon Global Services. Please go ahead. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity for the second time. Ma'am, my question was a little bit more again on the business development, like credit and deposit side, a little more in detail. What are we actually looking at? What is our pipeline showing as far as the credit is concerned? We have, I think, the renewable energy credit facility of about INR 27,269 crores. So are we looking for more opportunity in the renewable energy side? What is our sanctioned undisbursed pipeline is saying, and the proposals which are not yet sanctioned but are in pipeline is saying? Because we need to start worrying about the growth. Deposit side, I mean, you are comfortable as far as your CRR is concerned. You also have extra SLR. I mean, you can raise the funds also. But on the credit front, because in order to maintain the profitability of the bank on a continuous basis, you need to grow your loan book. So where are the opportunities you are looking at, and what thrust, on which areas you are giving the main thrust? And is there any space started showing in the renewable energy space also? Yeah. We have almost, as I told earlier, also, we have got almost about INR 75,000 crores pending for disbursement and sanctions. Out of the 75,000, 36,000 crores is pending for disbursement, and 39,000 crores is pending for sanctions at our end. We have sanctions under road, power, real estate, iron and steel, cement, renewable energy, EV, semiconductors. We have got so many sectors under which the loan has already been sanctioned. Now, renewable energy, also, we get a lot many proposals, but the bank is very clear that if you are getting it at a good pricing and the rating of the promoters are good, only then we take up these kinds of industries. We just do not want to grow for the sake of growing, but whatever meets our bottom line, that is the way the bank wants to grow. I have told you at the beginning only that we are committed to a sustainable growth with a balanced focus on the top line and bottom line performance. With the kind of strategies that the bank has taken in the last few quarters, we have shown good bottom line performance, exceeding the market, the way the market is thought about. We have taken up a lot of initiatives to improve our performance in the advances sector also, and we hope to continue with those kinds of practices which will help us in a sustainable growth, but also the bottom line of the bank is also adequately taken care. Okay. I mean, so basically, if the things a little bit improve in the overall economy and if you become a little positive, you have a scope for immediate 26,000 crores of this which is already sanctioned and on disbursement, and you have another strong good pipeline, of course, providing you meeting your criteria. Having said that, my next question, ma'am, in this round is on a little bit of clarity on this taxation DTA number. So how much more is left, and can the CFO give a little color? Like this quarter, it was, I think, 1,289 crores compared to last quarter of 1,681 crores, the taxation, including DTA, and including DTA. Overall, in nine months, it is 4,321 crores as compared to previous nine months of 5,891 crores. So going forward, in March 2025, because the taxation ultimately affects our bottom line, even though we don't have to pay actual tax so much. So can you please throw some color on that? What is actually going to be 2025 color figures on the taxation on the DTA, including DTA? See, the way generally, as well as the DTA, the provisions, the work is that the provisions for taxation and DTA kind of offset. So for instance, you could obviously look at as we increase the amount of write-offs, that would have some color as far as our DTA is concerned. I will not be able to give you exact numbers as far as DTA is concerned, but maybe I can discuss with you offline in terms of how our DTA book is panning out. But I won't have numbers right now with me in terms of what the March 2025 DTA would be. What is the total amount left now? Total amount of DTA? Total amount is roughly about INR 2,175 crores of DTA. Okay. That is to be taken care of in the coming quarters, isn't it? Not necessarily coming quarter. In the coming quarters, yeah. Quarters, yes. Quarters, only. Yes. All right. Ma'am, last question is on the buffer provisions, and have you used some of the buffer, the additional provision on the standard assets, I think which stands about INR 550 crores or something now? Is there any addition in this quarter in this, or have you used something out of the existing buffer which we had, or more than the IRAC norms provision is any, which is there still? So I mean, I think we are making standard asset provision in line with the regulations. So we don't, I mean, what we monitor is how are we comparing ECL versus what we are holding in our books right now, and they are very comfortable. So we are not necessarily maintaining additional buffers as far as our standard asset provision is concerned. If you look at the note to the accounts, that is a prudential measure, not that it is an IRAC requirement. If you read the note, it says additional provision on standard assets, that is a prudential measure, not on a prudential basis. So definitely, it means it's not as per the guidelines. How about the guidelines? So yeah, yeah. But Ajmera ji, that is referring to the provision that we had made in the June quarter, if you recollect, towards standard asset provisioning. So that we are still holding because only one of those accounts moved to specific provision. The balance still stays there, and that we will revisit as the quarters go by. Yeah. So basically, my reason for asking this question was whether in the coming quarter, it might come down, I mean, it might get totally reduced, or I mean, or a decision may be applied on this, or it may take some more time. No, we don't expect this to because obviously, it can get reallocated to other NPAs if required. So I would not say that it will reduce in the coming quarter. We will obviously revisit it as and when developments take place. All right. If you permit, ma'am, something on the digital front, on the digital journey, because when the moves are down, the business is a little bit down, and this thing, I mean, we've a little bit reduced our efforts towards that. So can you throw some light on the digital journey, whether it is as per our plans, what kind of spending which we have done already now this year, and what do we plan to do? Yeah. So good afternoon. In terms of the digital transformation journey, in this quarter, in the December quarter, we have actually launched our platform with the seven journeys as of now. And in terms of the other standalone journey, obviously, there are 17 journeys which are already live, and there are business which is being done. So if you look at the number, basically around INR 18,800 crores amount of digital lending we have done, and there are around 5.26 lakh accounts we have opened and renewed. In terms of our liability side of it, obviously, we have opened almost like 1 lakh plus digital accounts through that. And we have gone in terms of our Vyom, particularly digital channel, which is a Vyom, almost like 3 crore customers that are onboarded on this journey, this platform. So as far as the bank is concerned, we are on track in terms of our digital transformation journey. There are journeys which are going to come next quarter, and they are out. So we are on track as far as our digital transformation plans are concerned. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ashok Ajmera, I'll request to come back for a follow-up question. Next question is from the line of Aditi Naval from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking the follow-up question. I just had one question on the asset quality front. So on page 17 of your PPT, I can see that there's LC and others where the slippages have been very minuscule this quarter. However, the outstanding GNPA has increased by around 2,000 odd crores, and the percentage has also increased. So can you just provide some color as to how this is working? I mean, your slippages are very less, but your GNPA has increased quite a bit. Yeah. It is not LC, actually. So actually, you're talking about numbers, the increase in the NPA numbers. The LC and others. LC and others, yes. LC and others. Yeah. I told you when I was addressing the MSME issue, I was talking about how about 13,000 crores have been reclassified from MSME book. Out of that, because of the URN number not available, and out of that, close to about 7,000 crores are NPAs, which has come to the it was actually in the MSME segment because there was no URN number available. It has declassified, and that is how it is showing under LC and others. Okay, so even the GNPA gets reclassified. Yes. Got it. Got it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rakesh Kumar from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Hello. Hello. Yeah. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, ma'am. Thanks. Yeah. Just one question I had, ma'am. So in the first half, what we had seen is that the core retail deposit growth as per the LCR definition and classification was around 4.5%. So now, even retail term deposit growth has been close to around 8% numbers. But how is the number as per the LCR, if you can throw some light? Because that would be important from the LCR perspective and the balance sheet growth perspective. Yeah. Our average LCR has been in the range of 130%. So earlier, it was a little higher than 130%, but this 130% is still a very comfortable number for us. Even under the new guidelines, it will be well above the regulatory and our implicit policy limit. No, no, sir. That could have happened because we have reduced the wholesale deposit composition this quarter on a sequential basis. So that could have positive repercussion on the LCR number. The core retail deposit growth, which is very crucial for sustained LCR number and for this thing also, for the balance sheet growth also. So that number was around 4.5% in the last quarter. How that number looks like this quarter? You have to come back on this soon. Let me come back on this number calculation. Sure, ma'am. Sure, sure. Sure. Thank you. That's it. That's it. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. On behalf of Union Bank of India, we conclude today's conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.