HDFC Bank Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call | Concall.in

Thank you Shini and thank you all for joining in on this investor call for the Q1 results for FY27. As you know, we've navigated certain challenges over the last four months. Our people have kept steadfast focus on customer needs and built the franchise. It's been a very tough period but I really am proud of them and thank you to each one of them who stood behind in continuing the strength and resilience of the institution. I also sincerely thank the board for their guidance and more so Keki Mistry for chairing as the interim chairman during this period. I also heartily welcome our new chairman Rajiv Kumar. We look forward to taking the franchise to the next growth stage. With the appointment of Mr. Rajiv Kumar, there is a sense of stability and a clear signal to minimize uncertainties in a very short time period. Coming to some of the accomplishments in Q1, the deposit growth continues to be relatively better than the historical Q1 trends. We continue to gain market share both on an incremental basis and on a stock basis as well. Our productivity at the branch continues to move up and we realize benefits of the investments that we've done over the last five to six years. Advances, as we had mentioned envisioned a while ago, I think we are on the verge of pressing the pedal. As you have seen, the advances have done very well over the last three to four quarters and that trajectory continues. We are focusing on certain customer segments to manage more long-term opportunities. Our focus now, as I may have mentioned in the past and also in our annual report, we are trying to take customer service to a different level, especially in focusing on the turnaround time of our product and service offerings. We're now measuring it at a more granular level across the length and breadth of the country. We are reimagining our digital journeys and analytics so that we are able to have new levels of adoption that should bring in a fair amount of efficiencies in the quarters to come. As regards the environment, we see our policy responses have been very timely and effective. There is a very healthy credit demand that we are seeing in the system as we speak. We believe that the FCNR policy window that has been offered to the banking system is a great opportunity and we are focusing on that. We have spent a large part of the month of June in completing the documentation and approvals necessary from our side and also from the counterparty banks across various jurisdictions. The ECLGS scheme 5.0 is also a very good opportunity and you will see a fair amount of growth that we will pick up in the mid-market segment. Competition has been very intense both on the corporate side where the spreads continue to be very thin and we have been rather selective, but we are also looking at a holistic primary relationship engagement. The deposit rates on the granular side have been reasonably stable but on the non-granular side, rates have continued to remain elevated. This quarter you may see some amount of mix change in terms of more non-retail shorter term asset mix. The cost of funds moderation, these are all elements which I believe are just tactically being managed. Fundamentally, the franchise continues to be extremely strong and we will be stepping up the multiple product offerings and one customer view and you will see the changes happening in the quarters to come. Productivity is a very key focus and you would see the outcomes of the efficiencies from our focus on digital adoption, the process re-engineering, the kind of customer focus by the senior supervisory architecture which will ensure that we are able to turn around the delivery times much shorter than what we have ever enjoyed and what the best-in-class market is offering today. We have provided a fair amount of tools for deeper customer engagement as I did allude in terms of technology. We are on the cusp of really harnessing some of the GenAI technologies on our processes and we do have a fair amount of lighthouse programs that will go into production during the course of the year. Obviously, all of us realize that security is going to be an extremely important part of our strategy and we are focusing on seeing how we can leverage AI to augment our defense mechanisms as well. There are risks on the horizon in terms of weather related disruptions like El Nino and also the geopolitical situation in West Asia. But I think the country has weathered these reasonably well. I think we continue to remain very sanguine. We are prepared as the country and hence as a company in terms of weathering any such challenges in the near future. I once again thank everyone for a wonderful performance despite a lot of challenges that have happened over these several months. I think good times are here to come and we stay committed towards customers and other stakeholders in terms of what HDFC Bank has always been to all these stakeholders over these last 30 years. Thank you so much and over to Shini.

Okay, first probably I'll take the first part of the question. How to think about the margin? There are two aspects as you know. One is the cost of funds is the biggest opportunity on the margin where, compared to our historical norms as well as compared to what we have seen in the industry as such, there can be 40 to 50 basis points change, but it is not going to change in a hurry. And there are the elements of that. One is the liquidity scenario of the country needs to be slightly different than where it is. For example, even in the recent quarter, the average liquidity in the system was about 2.08 trillion. However, the peak was 5.5 trillion and the trough was a negative 0.43 trillion. So there's a big difference between the peak and the trough. On an average it is 2.08. We need that standard deviation to that average to be minimal. So then there could be kind of an active market where the rates can stabilize well, and that's part of what the policy is also envisaged. And you've seen that FCNR or the swap window and all of that is in the direction to ensure that there's adequate flows and there is a stabilization of the rates there. So it depends on that, and that's what determines both the deposit cost, particularly the non-retail deposit cost. The retail deposit cost, as various players in the industry have been circumspect and have been steady there, but the non-retail deposit costs have been elevated. And similarly, the borrowing mix has not come off yet. We still remain at about 11%. That continues to be a space that we keep watching, but again it doesn't change in the short term and doesn't change in a hurry. CASA mix again, we've been relentlessly following up on the CASA. We did, I mean on a quarter-to-quarter basis we can't see and we don't judge, but on a yearly basis for the year that went by, for example March '26 for which data got published across the industry, while we grew between 9.5% and 10% or so, we still gained market share on that front. So we do envisage and we are positioned with our distribution and customer addition to get that, but again that is a journey and not a kind of a shorter-term impact. So that remains on that. On the asset yield, asset yield is a function of... Whether if you ask me whether the margins have bottomed out for the year, we can talk about quarter-to-quarter we cannot and we don't manage for the shorter term. The reason is there are timings in the year through which various types of loans get booked, and so we have to wait for the year to see. But we do think that on a full year basis, we are well positioned with our reach and with our customer selection to be better. As regards the second question that you asked about enhancing the number of full-time directors on the board, yes, there are several milestones which the board is seized of, including with the appointment of the new chairman, new part-time chairman. Some of which, all of you know, I think a fair amount of action will be visible in a short time period, and I would like you to sort of wait for the okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. What I'll first talk about the branch as such. Right from a branch vintage model, yes, about close to 40% of the branches are less than five years, and yes, those time periods that you mentioned, we did add, made a significant addition to branches. If you look at the per branch metrics, we are about 330 crores per branch currently. And if you go back to the '23 time period, we were 266 crores per branch. And if you go back even further, it's less than 200 crores. So the point is, the branch addition at an aggregate level, the early vintages are performing to the legacy branch vintages, and the legacy branch vintages are also progressing towards what a 10-plus years and 15-plus years will do, which is what is demonstrated in the average per branch. When you see 330 crores per branch, it is extremely productive and one of the best-in-class in the industry on a per branch basis. So the branches are behaving according to the model that is NVH. One thing I want to mention is that while it's very important that the branches are the key arm to get the deposits in, branches are a very significant part of how we grow part of the retail assets and the small and medium enterprises loans. The wholesale and the top corporate mid-corporate loans get centrally managed through various relationships, but branch level is where all the other segments operate, and the growth that you see there, these branches do deliver all of those things. I just want to leave the thought there. And in terms of the savings account that you mentioned, one thing that if you look at the household deposit growth in the country as such, when you look at the data that gets published by RBI across various categories, segmentation of deposits, household deposit growth is one of the lowest among various, right? When you look at the corporates, when you look at the government and institutions, and when you look at the households, the household deposit growth is one of the lowest. That doesn't mean that that's how it's supposed to be. It's going through that phase of how it's remaining in the single digit. And the way we have approached to address this is, there will be only a certain level of savings accounts anybody will have, and that is why the distribution reach and addition of the customers is about increasing the unit, and thereby the unit value can marginally go up. We need the unit. So this is about the unit economics that we need to drive. And at the same time, as we drive the unit economics, we are today a little more than 100 million customers. And as we drive the unit economics, keep the cost in check and under control on efficiency so that we scale this. That's what is happening. The scaling is happening with unit economics moving because we are not counting on the household deposit growth to go from 8-9% to 15%. That may happen, may not happen, but that's not our approach. Our approach is to increase the units to get that benefit.

So Pranov, thank you for that. Number one is, you yourself alluded to the fact that we've had a fair amount of investment and distribution over these five years. So our denominator has a fair amount of branches which will start to generate more and more customers and hence balances as we start to move into the 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 vintage of these investments. That will happen, and you have seen in our presentations how the economics work for different vintage branches. Number two is, despite that, the productivity may have come down relatively, but it's still one of the best in class in the industry. The second part of it is, as Shini was saying, it is a fact that in the last couple of years or more, three years, the industry and the system were also plagued with a fair amount of number of accounts which were not necessarily behaving in an orderly manner. And what I meant by that is, you did see a fair amount of fraudsters using accounts as mules, and that sort of started to increase in the banking system significantly. We needed to use a fair amount of our algorithms and rule engines to try and see how we can bring in some amount of quality acquisitions over the periods of FY24, FY25, and FY26. I think these are the three years, FY25 and FY26, which is what we did, and that was pretty much reflected in the slowdown in the new acquisitions because we were gearing ourselves to the new realm of better quality acquisitions. As we now move forward, you will and one should see a step up in what Shini calls unit economics, in terms of the numbers moving up at the quality and the kind of diligence that one would necessarily need in this kind of a digital environment. And that is what we are trying to do. So I guess it was a matter of correction to ensure that we put in guardrails not to bring in unwanted accounts. I think as we move forward, we are reasonably confident that we not only will reach reasonable healthy numbers in terms of annual momentum depending on the capacity of the overall 9,700 branches, but also the quality acquisition value, unit value as well. So my hunch tells me that you should see reasonably healthy growth over a 1-2-3 year period in the savings accounts as well.

Thank you.

Okay. I'll handle the margin then. First, Kunal, thanks for asking that. One is, I do want to mention that the borrowing mix which is at 11%, we don't expect that it'll just settle at 8 or 9. The industry is more like 5 or 6 percent. So we do think that the maturity should take care of that to some extent, and the overall growth should also take care of it to the balance extent, because as the growth happens, you don't need to fund only through borrowing, so then the borrowing percentage will drop off and come down. Now that's one. Second thing connected to that, you asked what is the longer-term margin, where does this settle? Yeah, see again, as I mentioned, both from when you benchmark and see against us and against the peer group and so on, the cost of funds elements that need to play out are very much intact and those are being... hello?

Okay. Thank you. Kunal, where did it get dropped? Because somewhere the cable... Cost of funds benefit will play out and it is very much in the works, both in our annual review of plans and as well as our strategic review. It's very much where we envisage and receiving the attention of various verticals to get that right, both from a mix of products within the deposits as well as mix of borrowings within that, very much there to get that. On the asset side, I was that's where I think it got cut off. On the asset side, the mix of assets is also an important contributor for a longer-term margin. Today we are at a 52% retail mix. At our kind of experience that we have seen, we were at about 60% or so, and we always have thought that India's consumption component of the GDP is at about 60%, and that's where we want to be as far as the retail mix is concerned, because that's when we'll mirror the economic growth and fortunes in the country. So we can be going in tandem with that. And so that mix of the loan asset is also an important contributor on that. As regards the third question that you had on the reappointment of the MD, I can share with you that the board is fully seized of the matter and that is work in process, and as they arrive at a conclusion, we will certainly make the necessary announcements in that regard. And as regards, as I mentioned, even in 2014, the pay started to pick up only in the second month of the announcement. The first month, like in 2014, I think we spent a fair amount of time in the documentation part of it and the approvals both internally and also the respective counterparty banks, and you will see in the month of July, August, September we have certain milestones. I'm sorry I can't sort of put a number to that in the public domain, but you will see a very handsome, that's the endeavor to ensure that we are reasonably strong and significant market share in the market. Can you hear us?

And okay, let me try and attempt that. For a start, the endeavor and our vision is to reach somewhere near the pre-merger levels, or just around the time of the merger which was around 38. Post the merger we were 38, and before that we were 40.

And if you, as Shini had alluded, obviously there has been a significant change in the household savings pattern over the last 3 years or so. So what are we trying to do? We're trying to see how we can gain more incremental market share on our low-cost funds much more than what we have as a stock share. That's the first part of it. Obviously our appetite to grow is much more, so there is a need to even grow our time deposits. And the result is, because if you need to grow, then you would need a certain amount of time deposit growth, which invariably over the last couple of years has been much higher than the low-cost funds growth rate. So therefore the CASA ratio has been a little bit on the lower side. So the thought process that we have, as Shini didn't mention, is that we are probably now after putting in our guardrails in terms of what kind of customers need to come into the institution. From an acquisition perspective, I think we are now ready to press the pedal. I think that is what the entire franchise is driving about, and maybe over the next 9 months we will see, we hope to see a fair amount of change in the acquisition numbers and hence value. If that sort of really changes the growth rates to be much better than our time deposit growth, I think that will be wonderful. But obviously, you know, a world is not so perfect. And having said that, also, if you are 50% of your balance sheet is non-retail which is wholesale, you cannot really ignore that particular franchise as well. We cannot sort of pick and choose what we want. We need to ensure that we are there for all the needs of the corporate customer, whether it is for deposits, whether it's for cash management, whether it's for any other type of facility, as long as the appetite is there for us. So yes, this particular quarter is, as I said, we are now not looking at a quarterly measurement. We want to see at the medium to long term. I think while this quarter it could be a 20% mix in terms of deposits, etc., but I guess these things then normalize. And in the medium to long term, I think it's been more or less stable, which is what we have seen over the last 10 years. Our focus is going to be on retail, because that's where you get the advantage on deposits. That's where you...

on the cost of funds. But at some point in time from a holistic relationship perspective, even from we need to patronize some of the capital markets and also the corporate segments as well. But be as it may, while margin is something that a lot of us have been focusing on, for us there are areas that we want to first because margin will play out as we move forward. I'm sure assuming all things remaining being same from next year, the basic awareness of how this plays around is not something that I'm necessarily focusing on. I need to be in the market. We need to be competitive, but we want to be competitive in such a way that we are able to garner a lot of efficiencies arising out of our enhanced and stepped-up focus on customer service, which will bring down the turnaround time and hence will bring down the capacities at the back end, which will move to the front end, which will see a fair amount of efficiencies over the next two to three years. This is how we are planning strategically, and if in the bargain, in the process, the outcome also helps us in getting a better low-cost funds proportion and hence better margins. I think that's a kind of a bonus as well. So we are very focused on three or four things: customer focus to the level of obsession, riding on technology especially in terms of embedding AI in our journeys. Three is trying to ensure that our daily operating rhythm reduces the turnaround time for product and service delivery. Four is stepping up and releasing a lot of capacity at the customer-facing end to be able to engage more with the customers and hence more of business momentum coming about, which is growth. And then the very fact that we are cutting down on turnaround time efficiency should lead to better cost-to-earnings efficiencies as well. So this is an offset which is what we are looking at, and if in the bargain we also get the benefit of improved CASA ratios, CASA mobilizations over the next two to three years, I think that's going to be a jam in our strategy.

Yes, absolutely. Because the moment we start to focus on that and when we try and create a kind of best-in-class experience, why would any customer move out? I mean, rather he would. That's one of our key objectives: gain market share within the wall within our existing base itself or even from new-to-bank acquisitions as well. So that's going to be our next two- to three-year journey and we are all seized of this. We're not too worried about the segmentation. I mean we need to be agile in any customer segment that we're participating. Today we are focusing more and more on the retail and MSME segment. I'm sure we have a stronghold in the corporate segment, but even on that, with the implementation of new technologies over a period of time, we have been prioritizing more on the retail and MSME segment. But I'm sure that even the wholesale, corporate, and capital market segment will also get that and that will also sort of see a change in terms of the wallet share increase.

Thank you, Su. One thing I do want to add is that while there is a relentless pursuit for CASA, granular CASA that includes current account too from the retail merchant type of customers, time deposit continues to be a very big opportunity because only 14% of our customers have time deposits with us. So there is an enormous opportunity for a deeper penetration on that. So it's not this or that, it's both. I just want to mention.

Okay. The first one in terms of the profits, just to mention that the headline just say which line and mute that line.

Okay. Yeah, let's go. Suresh, you asked about the profits. The reported profits when you compare last year to this year, it does show 5%. But last year included certain one-times like HTB gains and then we had a floating provision, countercyclical buffer that we added, and some contingent provision and so on. So adjusted for that, I think in one of our reports that we filed, it shows 9.8% profit. Yes, but 9.4-9.8% profit growth is still lower than the overall balance sheet growth. Correct. We do think that in the longer term, the profit growth should be at or above the balance sheet growth. Yes, that's still in our plans and that's how we approach. Again, please don't look at quarter to quarter. But since you touched upon the five, I talked about the 9.8, you should look at the full year. And yes, that's part of how we envisage to do. The second aspect that you touched upon is also where CASA correlation to the rates. Yes, we are cognizant of that fact and we have seen over the last few years about the household deposit growth and how that is functioning. We are also aware that you and me included, every individual is going to keep only a certain level of their individual's working capital needs in the savings account, and similarly the small merchants which is our target for current account into their current account. So the way I was describing to another person was that it is about the unit increase and that is why the distribution is important. And we are adding customers into that and we are more than 100, 101 million, 102 million customer relationships. We'll keep building on that and that's an important ingredient to get that. Yes, can it organically grow by the nominal rate of 10%? Yes, it can go nominally 10%, but anything more gaining on the market share comes through the unit economics here, which is get more units for the same average balance.

Thank you.

Yeah. The annual report we just published a few days ago will show you the profile of maturity of borrowings. You'll see that 40 or 50,000 crores over the next couple of years. You'll see that and it does have a differential in rate: a little more than 7% to, if you get a retail, it could be six odd percent. So you can pick up 100 basis points, 125 basis points depending on the source of the time deposit. If you just replace borrowings with time deposit, or you envisage to replace with a mix of time and CASA but only time, a little more than 100 basis points you will see. Second question, we didn't get that. You can repeat, but we'll go to the third. On the ECL method, there are two aspects. The overall provision that we are carrying seems adequate and sufficient for the ECL methodology which is going to kick in on 1st of April 2027. One thing on the ECL that you need to take into account is that at that time, it depends on the pool position, it depends on the historical behavior of that pool position, and from that, various pools of assets I'm talking about, and then you look forward from there for 12 months. That means whatever is the various categories of pools, from that you look forward for 12 months from then on, and then you have a modeling. Then on top of that, there is flexibility for management overlay. And there are floors to take into account considering where we are today and looking 12 months down the line. We do believe that our reserving process and reserving methodology is quite adequate. For us to think about the stage three assets which is equivalent to the NPA today, that coverage is quite adequate. Stage one and stage two, which are in various buckets of delinquencies, or stage one is not in any delinquency, stage two could be in various buckets of delinquency. The floors that are there, for example, the floor in the unsecured category is 1% and the floor in the secured category is 5%. No, no, stage two is 5%. And so on. So if you look at that, the standard asset carries a 40 basis points provision, but here the floor is 1% for unsecured for stage one, and for stage two it is 5%. So there will be enhancement, but those enhancements are adequately covered in various manner through various contingent provisions and others that we have. So we feel confident of working through this process on the reserves. The second question we didn't get it, you can repeat. Yeah.

I don't think there will be anything material, but there will be some because as exactly I described, standard assets today are approximately 40 basis points, there are some 25 basis points, some 100 basis points. But on an average, 40 basis points for standard assets. And that by definition, because of the floors which are there, unsecured floor is 1% in stage one which is standard, stage two in any delinquency bucket the floor is 5%, and so on. So because of the floor, there will be enhancement, but the way we look today and look forward from here, it would be some impact but nothing material in terms of big impact.

So, I'll answer your first question. And actually you need to take the second in terms of growth. You know, we have seen growth. If you see the pack that we already released and the advances mix, we have seen very good growth happen in our corporate and wholesale segment. We have seen that grow at about 18%, and this is continuing from the growth that we had seen in the previous quarter as well, which was around those levels. We've also continued to see very good growth come in our MSME segment. Over there, we have seen business banking, which is the largest component of our MSME segment, grow at 22.3% this year, and this even tops what we had done in the March quarter. Typically June is a little softer quarter, but what we have done in June in the MSME segment tells you the traction that we are seeing over there. We've also in the MSME, as you would be aware, the scheme of ECLGS 5.0 was launched and we have participated in that scheme. We have already as of 30th of June had a disbursement in that scheme of close to 14,000 crores under the ECLGS scheme. I believe that's amongst the highest in terms of the participating banks because of the spread of customers and the quality of the portfolio that we have over there. So we have seen even the MSME segment grow very robustly. I mentioned to you the pace of growth that has taken place over there. In addition to the wholesale and MSME, we've seen good growth also come through in our core retail segment. We've seen on a year-on-year basis very strong growth in our disbursements in the wheels business. We've also similarly seen a strong growth in our unsecured business on disbursements in terms of the personal loans and business loans that we do over there, as well as touching upon finally the mortgages piece. Again, we've seen a growth of close to 14% in terms of disbursements on mortgages on year. And the earlier two pieces that I talked about, we have seen disbursement growth of approximately about 20 odd percent. So that should give you a flavor of how we've participated in each of these segments. And we do see credit demand holding. We do see a lot of resilience which has been there in the economy even post what we have seen in terms of the geopolitical situation. Yes, we have to wait for the full impact of the El Nino and see, because that does have a bearing which plays out in the third quarter of the financial year. So therefore, we are well positioned across most of our business segments in terms of how we have approached them, and there continues to be an opportunity and a relationship which we will continue to mine, whether on the wholesale segment or in the mid-market and retail segment.

Okay. Thank you, Ka. I'm going to take your second part of the question relating to the coverage. See, the overall coverage that you see now is 66%. I would draw your attention to go back to 2019. And the reason for that is in between, there could be COVID, somewhere up, somewhere down in terms of coverage, and subsequently there was a merger, somewhere up and then subsequently down. In terms of various coverage, there are several other nuances in between. So you go back to the longer term: what the coverage is, it was 71, now it is 66, that's the headline coverage. Now if you peel that and get to what is it? If you look at the coverage excluding the agricultural book, agriculture is a secured part of the book. At that time it was 71 was the total, and today excluding agri it is 70. So it's a proportion of the agriculture book which is at a higher proportion right now. That is the difference that you are seeing in the coverage. That's number one. Number two, in the shorter term, meaning when you look at a quarter or a year, it is the secured-unsecured mix that shows the difference. If you look at the unsecured mix, the coverage will be in the 70s, mid-70s or higher. The secured will be lower. The unsecured is in the mid-70s or above. And the reason for that is if you look at our rate of growth that we had over a two-year period on some of those retail type of unsecured loans, it has been modest. Even now, when you look at the book growth on cars, it's 2.3% or something, while the sales spend grows at 13% but the book grows at 2 to 3%. And similarly, the unsecured on personal loan and so on still remains in the single digit there. And the disbursals are in the healthy double digit, but it takes time to catch up. So the PCR is a function of the composition of the book. Where there is a necessity to build reserves, it is there. It's formula, it doesn't go through any kind of discretion. It goes through a formula and gets it done. And the same when we benchmark this to an ECL method, which is the stage three ECL provision, we seem to be adequate there too even in the go-to model.

Go ahead.

Nan, Nathan, Nitan, we're just commencing the drive. While demand is there, we just don't want to commit any number. Let it start to flow and you will see it. But definitely, if the system is X, we will be a significant portion of the system as we were in the 2014-15 period. That is our endeavor. I think we are all, the entire team is quite gung-ho to mobilize that kind of, we are all energized and I think we are on track towards that.

So I believe you're on mute.

I think it's whatever page the team will tell you. It is the cost of funds is published along with the yield too. Sequential quarter, I think it's almost flat, a couple of basis points plus minus, it's within the range. And over a period of a year, I think it's about call it 40-50 basis points, 40 basis points or so, year to year.

Yeah. So, Piran, the growth, as we have always said, is going to be a function of how the growth is being seen in the economy in the segments which are bankable by our credit underwriting standards. So we have, I just alluded to an earlier response where I talked about the fact that we have seen good traction year on year on the disbursement side in terms of our core retail book, which consists of our wheels business, the unsecured, as well as the mortgage business. So we do see that certainly picking up over the next several quarters. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey and we're well on the path to see that really moving forward. We also seen good traction in the system on the mid-market and corporate side, and we have a very good franchise and presence in that segment where we are market leaders, and we see that also continuing to contribute in the year ahead. So there are several drivers, including other products that we've got in our basket on the retail side, such as gold loans, which have started contributing. Yes, right now it's a little smaller part of the whole retail basket, but growing very well. We've also got other microloans that we've started in terms of our Dukar lending, which is bringing up the core retail. So we do see it being well diversified within the retail space, but I think both corporate and retail along with mid-market should continue to drive growth in the coming quarters.

No. I think on the contrary, the kind of investments that we have done over a period of five years has been one of the most despite the fact that there have been a lot of events that have happened during these five years. I mean, whether it's the merger, whether it is COVID initially, then merger, and then a fair amount of investments in distribution, investment in resources, and investment in technology has been there. Now we are probably, as you may have heard Shini in the past, there's always an investment phase and then a harvesting of the investment phase that will happen. So we also want to enjoy some of the things that we have invested. This is sort of giving us the kind of return as investors. I think you will see that while investments will be slightly muted, especially in distribution for now, but technology will continue because security and AI is going to be a very significant part of any organization which wants to really thrive into the future. That will continue to be there. It's just that what you're not seeing is that we have upfronted a fair amount of investments and therefore you don't need that kind of large incremental investments, but the investments will continue into the future. As I had mentioned, I think we are probably at the cusp of harnessing these investments, whether it's on the branch distribution or in terms of the technology investments. Over the next two to three years, the returns in terms of efficiencies will start to play out, which is what is going to be our key strategy in terms of how we balance growth and efficiencies, offsetting some of the margins if at all there is, in the same levels as we are today.

There is a reason why most of us are all doing on Saturdays. It's not that we have a joy in coming to work on a Saturday, I can assure you that, or to spoil your weekend. There is a reason why because since the markets are closed, a fair amount of people will get exposed to this kind of information through the day. We just want to minimize some of the regulatory transgressions that may happen if we do it on a weekday. So that's why all of us, a large part of the banking system I think is now gravitating towards weekend as a disclosure for this very reason. It's not that we are not going to be ready on a weekday. We would be, but it's a little bit of a high risk during that period.

Thank you. Thank you. We'll give a thought to that. Yeah. Thank you.