Audit report of 'bob World' is in progress; RBI decision to impact capital

The audit report on ‘bob World’ app is in progress, and they are yet to send it to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said the management of Bank of Baroda.

"The audit report on BoB World is in progress, so cannot speak about it," said Debadatta Chand, MD & CEO of Bank of Baroda. Separately, Joydeep Dutta Roy, Executive Director of BoB, said that the audit report is in progress and hasn't been sent to the RBI. Both officials spoke on the sidelines of a banking seminar organised by FICCI & IBA.

In October, RBI had ordered Bank of Baroda (BoB) to suspend further customer onboarding on its ‘bob World’ mobile app with immediate effect, citing material supervisory concerns. The central bank had observed supervisory concerns in the manner of customer onboarding onto the mobile application.

Speaking on the impact of RBI’s decision to increase risk weightage of unsecured loans, the Executive Director of the bank said that it is not as much a concern to the bank, as most of its customers are existing customers with salaried accounts.

“Our secured book has been from customers. It is not as much a problem for us as much as for the NBFCs which have grown based on their lending to the sub Rs 50,000 segment. We have a stable customer base and we know the customers and have their track record which are backed with salaried bank accounts,” Roy said.

Meanwhile, Chand said that the capital adequacy will see an impact of around 40-50 bps, with the lender having the option to either compensate the capital or raise capital, which the bank is yet to decide on the course.

The capital adequacy ratio of the bank as on 30 September 2023 was 15.30%.

Speaking on the future growth trajectory for the unsecured loan portfolio of the bank, Chand added that it has been moderating, and the lender will continue on the path.