Bank of Baroda’s Big Growth Plan Revealed | MD Debadatta Chand Speaks

🎥 Apr 01, 2026 📺 Zee Business ⏱ 8m 👁 758 views

Results Boardroom | Bank of Baroda Q4 में दमदार नतीजों की क्या रही वजह? मार्जिन को लेकर क्या है आउटलुक? Gold Loan में ग्रोथ को लेकर क्या है बैंक का प्लान? FY27 में ग्रोथ को लेकर क्या है अनुमान? देखिए Bank of Baroda के MD & CEO, देबदत्त चांद से अनिल सिंघवी की खास बातचीत #BankofBaroda #Q4Results #Bank #Invest #Gold About Zee Business: Zee Business is India's Number 1 Hindi business news channel. It's your channel for profit and wealth. Watch Live coverage of Indian markets - Sensex & Nifty, also for expert insights and advise from our team of experts. --------------------------...

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About Debadatta Chand

On July 20, 2026, Dr. Debadatta Chand addressed Bank of Baroda's 119th Foundation Day celebration, which was held under the theme "Leading with Trust." He stated that the bank should continue to "justify that trust through every decision we make, every customer we serve, every innovation we introduce, every promise we keep," and called for the bank to "innovate with responsibility, serve with humility, and lead the trust with one purpose, one team, one goal, one bank, striving for a billion dreams." The event included a tribute to the bank's founder, Maharaja Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, and the launch of an initiative with global brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar. In a June 9, 2026 interview, Chand said he expected inflows of "upward of 4 to 5 billion" dollars through bonds, borrowings, and FCNR(B) deposits, attributing the anticipated flows to recent Reserve Bank of India measures. He stated that the bank's guidance for net interest margins remained in the 2.75 to 2.95 percent range and that he did not see "any elevated stress" in the bank's loan book compared to the previous quarter. Chand noted that the June quarter was likely to show better treasury income than the March quarter, though he added that the final outcome would depend on the June closing.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Debadatta Chand's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (9 segments)

Interviewer0:01

After the market closed on Friday, the results came out strong, with revenue up 9% and profit rising over 11%. Both figures beat expectations, with provisioning appearing lower, though it slightly increased. However, gross and net NPAs declined. Net interest margins were almost maintained at around 2.9%. We have a very special guest joining us: the Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Baroda, Debadatta Chand. You have a B.Tech and an MBA, are a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB), have a postgraduate diploma in equity research, and a PhD in management. You previously served as Chief General Manager at PNB. With around 32 years of deep experience in banking and financial services, good morning, sir. Welcome and thank you for your time. The bank has delivered a very strong performance in the fourth quarter. Sir, what are the key triggers this quarter? Please explain.

Debadatta Chand1:10

Thank you very much for inviting me. You rightly said that the bank's performance this quarter and this year has been good. It's the best in 10 quarters. In March, we achieved two milestones when we closed our business: our total business crossed Rs 30 lakh crore, and our full-year net profit exceeded Rs 20,000 crore. I believe these are milestone numbers for the bank. This year we had previously said our focus is on RAM growth, and RAM growth is significant. Our retail growth is almost 18%, MSME at 15.3%, and agriculture more than 20%. At the same time, corporate growth, which was a bit lower in Q1 and Q2, picked up in Q3 and Q4, and corporate growth is now 11.2%. So on the loan side, advances growth has been good. A positive part that encourages us is that deposit growth has been good, and I hope this trend continues, so the slower deposit growth in the banking system will also improve. The reason could be anything: geopolitical, better product offerings by banks, but CASA growth this time is 9.8% and savings is 9.1%. So I think this is an all-around performance with advances growth, deposit growth, and at the same time, we have also delivered good profitability numbers.

Interviewer2:51

Absolutely right. There have been many milestones for Bank of Baroda this quarter, especially the margins you maintained at around 2.9%. Actually, I want to get your opinion on this. Will you be able to maintain margins around these levels going forward? What is the outlook?

Debadatta Chand3:12

If we talk about the absolute numbers, our NIM in December was 2.79% and for the full year in March it is 2.89%. So there is an improvement in margins. The underlying point I want to make is that the growth in interest income this quarter is higher than the growth in interest expenses, whereas this position was reversed until Q3. So this has positively impacted NII. NII growth is almost 9% because our interest expenses grew less than interest income, and NIM increased, positively impacting NII. There is one component that the market often asks about: interest on tax refunds, which is volatile and varies year to year. Keeping that in mind, we have given guidance for the next year of 2.75% to 2.95%, considering all other factors remain the same and accounting for the volatility of this element. Our March closing NIM is 2.89%, but the full-year guidance range is 2.75% to 2.95% typically to account for the volatility of interest on tax refunds. I think in the current scenario, given the market level and asset pricing, because the asset-liability repricing is largely complete, we believe we can stay within this range of 2.75% to 2.95% if there isn't a major geopolitical impact.

Interviewer4:48

Okay. That's interesting. Your growth in gold loans appears very strong. How aggressively does the bank want to pursue this business? Please explain, sir.

Debadatta Chand5:02

Look, our gold loan book has two parts: the retail book has a small base. Our retail gold loan shows 809% growth, but the base is only Rs 12,000 crore. The agri gold loan is a significant book. As of today, if I talk about agri gold, the stress measures we track—such as the stressed book and GNPA—are very low, less than 1%. That means the book is performing well. So in that way, as of today, we have sufficient cushion in our loan-to-value system to capture gold volatility. As of today, I don't think there is any elevated number that would make the bank concerned. But going forward, we will see; geopolitical factors are beyond our control. If there is an impact, we will review. But as of today, we are quite comfortable with both retail and agri gold loans, and we expect similar growth going forward.

Interviewer6:07

If you could give some estimate or direction, sir, what kind of growth can be expected from the overall bank for FY27? Also, what targets are you working with in terms of loans and deposits growth?

Debadatta Chand6:21

Actually, you are right; we have revised our guidance for both. For loans, the guidance was 11-13% last year, which we have now increased to 12-14%. For deposits, it was 9-11%, now raised to 10-12%. There are two or three reasons why we upgraded the guidance. First, because we are encouraged by our deposit growth; the deposit growth percentage in the last quarter suggests it can support higher loan growth. That's one. Second, last year we substantially and significantly outperformed our loan and deposit growth guidance. Third, regarding geopolitical issues, we have a slightly optimistic note that it may not last very long, but time will tell. Considering these three factors, we have revised our growth guidance upward by 1%. Having said that, last year's performance was well above even this revised guidance. So we are quite positive that we will achieve the revised guidance on a full-year basis. We always review and tweak guidance each quarter when we talk to the market, but going forward, we expect to deliver on the guidance. That's the point: we have raised guidance for both deposits and loans for FY27.

Interviewer7:42

And this seems to be liked by the market as well. Sir, once again, thank you very much. Congratulations on the stellar performance in the results and the outlook. Best wishes for the future that FY27 proves to be even better and stronger for Bank of Baroda. Thank you, sir.