Deposits from microbanking customers continue to be strong: Bandhan Bank

Bandhan Bank has reported about 60 per cent increase in loans and advances and nearly 32 per cent increase in deposits on a year-on-year basis at the end of 31st March 2020, the company said on Monday.

In a regulatory disclosure at the stock exchanges, the bank said, “Deposits from microbanking customers continues to be strong and stable despite three weeks of lockdown.”

Further, the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) as on March 31, 2020 was at 161 per cent. As on March 31, 2020, the bank was having excess liquidity amounting to Rs 8,402 crore. In addition, the bank is in a position to draw upto Rs 1,815 crore under MSF (marginal standing facility) of RBI.

The company's collection efficiency pan-India for the period from January 1, 2020 till March 21, 2020 stands at 98.7 per cent, the bank said.

As on March 31, 2020 Capital Adequacy of the bank was 26.7 per cent, with tier 1 Common Capital Ratio (CET1) ratio at 25.5 per cent.

The total loans and advances of the bank (which includes loans by its housing finance arm, Gruh) stood at Rs 71,825 crore, while the total deposits of the bank stood at Rs 57,073 crore. Of this, the share of retail deposit was Rs 44,760 crore. The share or microbanking deposits to total deposits was 5.7 per cent.

The MFI has seen near stoppage of business due to coronavirus pandemic as both collections and disbursements have come to halt. Confusion over loan moratorium has added to their woes.

In the recent monetary policy meet, the RBI has offered a moratorium of three months to all term loan borrowers, who are likely to be impacted by the lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The RBI statement on the relaxation does not specifically mention loans taken by corporate entities, leading to ambiguity. Meanwhile, microfinance lenders have announced extension of a full three-month moratorium to all their microfinance clients.