Bandhan Bank open to explore RBI's CBDC pilot, says MD Chandra Shekhar Ghosh

Bandhan Bank MD Chandra Shekhar Ghosh 1

Bandhan Bank's managing director and chief executive officer Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, in an interaction with Moneycontrol, said the bank is open to the idea of participating in the RBI’s ongoing pilots on central bank digital currency (CBDC). Ghosh also said the bank is expecting a 25 percent growth in the housing loan portfolio for Q2FY24.

Bandhan Bank reported a net profit of Rs 721 crore for the April-June quarter of FY24, down from Rs 886 crore in the corresponding period last year. During the period, the bank's gross non-performing asset (GNPA) decreased to 6.76 percent from 7.25 percent YoY while the net NPA stood at 2.18 percent compared with 1.92 percent in the corresponding quarter last year.

The Kolkata-based bank's commercial banking book grew by 78 percent on yearly basis. Retail loan books, other than housing finance books, grew by 86.5 percent and housing finance books grew by 9.5 percent.

Edited excerpts:

Is the bank willing to join RBI's CBDC project?

We would like to explore if opportunities are there in CBDC. Also, it depends on the bank's needs and opportunities.

What is your growth target on the housing finance loan book?

We are projecting a 25 percent growth in the housing loan book in the second quarter.  Now this quarter the growth has returned and the next quarter onwards, growth will be even more.

How is the asset quality on the microlending portfolio?

If you see the efficiency of collection, in last year's first quarter, the figure was 96 percent; this year this quarter (April-June quarter) this has improved to 98 percent. So that means that there has been improvement.

Bandhan Bank's net profit falls 19 percent to Rs 721 crore..

If you see, my business size has also come down. In the first year, in the first quarter, the seasonality factor is always there.

Can you shed some light on the trends in microcredit portfolios?

There is a healthy portfolio growth in microcredit compared to the previous year when it was down 5 percent. This quarter, we have disbursed microcredit of Rs 8,200 crore. And again, from this quarter onwards, the expectation is that the growth will be even higher.

Customer addition is less in this quarter...

It depends on the demand and supply. This quarter, the demand was a little low, the next quarter onwards customer addition will likely continue to grow compared to this quarter. We have added nearly 7 lakh customers in the current quarter and the total number of customers stands at 3.07 crore. Banking outlets as of June 30, 2023, stood at 6,140. The network consists of 1,542 branches and 4,598 banking units.