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

Highlights of the call:

Strategy to expand retail MSME and agri business and increase the share of other income and improve CASA is intact.

Corporate advances had muted growth as the company focused on retail, MSME and agri portfolio.

The company does not have any exposure in sectors like Aviation, telecom and EPC contractors etc. It has exposure to a steel company which has record of no defaults in its entire history of existence.

It did not have any exposure in road construction companies in last 4 years.

The management believes that it has very clean portfolio.

In FY 2020 it expects advances growth of 18-20% with focus on retail, MSME and agri portfolio.

Investment book stood at Rs 19525 crore.

There was Rs 114 crore NPA loan from Kerala based dental hospital/ medical college. It has very large amount of security and the management has no concern of recovering the money.

Non corporate NPA is Rs 250 crore.

It saw sharp growth in NPA in Agriculture to Rs 100 crore during the quarter.

Retail Banking Department will focus on retail loan & liability/investment products.

CASA grew 13.6% to Rs 19467 crore.

Cost income ratio should come down due to higher fee income and operational efficiencies.

PCR improved to 42.46%.

Credit cost stood at 112 bps for the quarter and 109 bps for the FY.

It targets credit cost of 1.0-1.05% for FY 2020.

In FY 2019 mortgage loans sanctioned stood at 3428 Nos. and it was worth Rs 1346 crore.

The bank targets to become banker of choice to SMEs thereby getting other business as well –liabilities, vehicle finance.

9 new branches were opened in Kerala in FY 2019 and 4 were opened in South India ex-Kerala.

Retail Loans (Excl. Gold), Agriculture & SME grew 20% in FY 2019.

Around 16.81% of the agriculture & SME loans are backed by additional security.

Cost to income ratio stood at 54.88% against 54.68% in Q3 and 47.17 in March 3018 quarter.

NIM stood at 2.58% March 2019 quarter against 2.62% in December 2018 quarter and 2.84% in March 2018 quarter.

The company is really working hard on the CASA side and improvement is bound to happen.

In Rs 50-100 crore bracket the company has zero MSME accounts. In 25-50 crore bracket it has 2 accounts amount to Rs 98 crore and in 5-24 crore bracket it has 46 account amount to 340+ crore.

The company has clear growth plans and will require to raise funds.

CRAR stands at 12.61%

It has no exposure in Reliance ADAG group or Essel group of companies.

For the next 4 quarters slippage guidance is Rs 250 crore.