V. G. Mathew, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank addressed the call.

Highlights of the call:

South Indian Bank registered a 2% rise in net interest income (NII) to Rs 519.62 crore. Provision and contingencies grew 32% to Rs 203.128 crore after which PBT fell 27% to Rs 128.89 crore. Net profit fell 27% to Rs 83.85 crore.

For the nine months NII rose 3% to Rs 1520.34 crore. Provision and contingencies fell 23% to Rs 639.33 crore after which PBT fell 19% to Rs 272.10 crore. Net profit fell 20% to Rs 177.02 crore.

It has come up with new retail banking department which focuses on retail loan & liability/investment products.

To strengthen its SME business, it will have cluster based approach in industry hubs.

It hopes to be sole banker to SMEs for all banking needs.

It has strategy & road map in place to increase CASA funds.

Focus is on increasing banking services for SME, Retail, NRI to increase other income.

Focus on 3rd Party/Investment products to generate more other income.

Retail base grew 29.4% to Rs 16857 crore.

CASA increased 11.7% to Rs 18905 crore.

It shall continue to focus on core strengths.

Retail hub in Kochi to increase focus on housing finance.

MSME, Mortgage and agriculture loan continue to drive growth.

During the quarter it had mortgage loans sanctioned of 2,872 Nos and amount stood at Rs 984 crore.

It has focused Green Channel branches to drive faster loan growth to SMEs.

Target is to become banker of choice to SMEs thereby getting other business as well like liabilities, vehicle finance.

Underwriting of SME loans through customized software called SME LOS (SME Loan Origination System) will ensure speedy, paperless processing with capabilities to integrate with external sources like Finacle, CIBIL, Rating Agencies etc for seamless flow of data.

NIM stood at 2.66% and for YTD it was 2.62%

Cost income tratio stands at 54.68% against 55.58%.

Expect credit cost to remain at 1% for FY 2019.

Slippage ratio was 1.09% due to IL&FS loan of Rs 400 crore.

Investment book stood at Rs 18926 crore.

96.8% of large corporate standard advances above Rs 100 crore are under Investment Grade

PCR stood at 41.17%.

It opened 12 ATM during the quarter.

82.7% of total corporate loan book is investment grade (Rs. 25 Crs and above)

Problem with loan has been with large corporate loans above Rs 100 crore. But large corporate slippage is now over.

Retail Loans (Excl. Gold), Agriculture & SME has grown by 14.1% (Y-o-Y).

It has zero exposure in Aviation, telecommunication and EPC contractors which is why the management feels that it is completely out of problem.

Future focus will be on SME, Retail and mid corporate sectors.

It is on track to have recovery of Rs 500 crore by FY 2018 end. It has done recovery of Rs 360 crore so for in the current FY.

For FY 2020 it is taking a conservative view on PCR. It has Rs 500 crore of IBC accounts. They are carrying 60% of provision.

In FY 2020 credit cost is expected to be at 1.1 to 1.2%.

Comfortable PCR is 65-70% but is unlikely to happen in FY 2020 unless significant amount of recovery happens.

Exposure to IL&FS is substandard and it has provided 15% for it so far.