Slowdown evident but total biz rejig not needed: RBL Bank CEO

A challenging macroeconomic environment calls for some caution in some segments but does not require a total recalibration of business, RBL Bank CEO Vishwavir Ahuja said in an interview. The bank flagged risks with regard to higher slippages from corporate accounts after posting a 40% jump in net profit in the quarter ended June 2019. In an interview, Ahuja told Joel Rebello the bank is looking at a slower growth for the rest of the fiscal. Edited excerpts:Your view on the macro environment and what it means for banking?The recognition is now there at every level, the government and regulatory levels that we need to improve growth prospects, particularly in the private corporate segment. Growth is tepid and there are clear signs of a slowdown. There is lack of investment. At the same time, risks have got elevated because of high levels of leverage with a large set of even high-quality companies. Also, what is emerging is you find high levels of promoter indebtedness, equity markets have been volatile and there have also been tight liquidity conditions. So, to put it all together, it does not make a happy story. So, certainly, something has to be done about this. But the good thing is there has been recognition. The government has been pumping capital into public sector banks largely to create the ability to lend and create growth momentum. In the budget, there have been measures announced enough to boost investment and growth. Rate environment is improving and becoming more benign. All this should be helpful. Now it’s a question of working through and resolving issues.You made a transparent disclosure on asset quality. What made you do that?If we don’t do it, there is unnecessary, excessive speculation. We would have done it anyway because we have always done it. When demonetisation happened, we came out upfront and told people to what extent it is going to impact us. The real impact was actually lower than what we projected. We were able to work through this very effectively and completely normalise it. Last year, when the agriculture crisis hit the country, our exposure was just 4% of total advances but whatever impact it was supposed to have on us, we talked about it in a timely manner. In the same spirit, and also to remain on the side of caution, we felt we should indicate before there is an excessive build-up of speculation. The fact of the matter is no bank is immune. Ultimately, you cannot avoid all the curve balls that have come.It is linked to the macro situation…Yes, it is linked to the macro situation and nobody can be perfect. So it’s best to then sit down and do a full, thorough assessment like we did and figured out where in certain specific cases, there were stress points. If some resolutions happen on time, some may not happen but that’s not something I can bet on so it’s best to come out clean on that. The good thing is whatever the number, we can absorb the cost. We can still grow at close to 30% for the year. We can still grow profits in the mid-to-high 20s. Our engines are chugging well and not derailing our journey in any way.What are your plans on the retail side?Contributions in this quarter and the last few quarters have come from the retail side, in particular from the card business. But we are adding more legs to our retail franchise. We are now building an MSME franchise and because of the distribution network we have created in micro banking, there are opportunities to move from group lending to household, individual and other kinds of MSME opportunities which are very granular. We have started that business and are somewhere around the ?500-crore mark. We are creating new legs so that the dependency on micro banking and cards over time, in percentage terms, comes down.Cards have grown strongly, the delinquencies are also high…when do you expect it to stabilise?When the growth rate slows down and new card additions are lesser than the stable, continuing card base, then there is a profit throwback. At less than 1 million cards, we broke even and it’s been more and more profitable ever since. Let’s say I grow at this pace till I cross three million cards from two million right now. After three million cards, my future growth will taper off and I will have a stable card book which will age by then, which is the reliable card base from where you don’t see delinquencies to nearly the same extent. That’s when we will see both the costs and delinquencies come down.What about opportunities in the wholesale banking?Opportunities are there but they are more difficult to bet on due to the uncertainties clouding these decisions. So I would grow, but cautiously. It means not 30% to 35% but 15% to 20% growth in terms of loan growth would be par for the course this year. If my whole book grows at 30%, I would rather have 40% coming from retail and 18% to 20% on wholesale side, I would be happy. Anything higher than that would be a bit aggressive in today’s world. It does not require any change in plans but just a move towards even better client selection, better-rated companies and deeper relationships through cross-sell and other products and services with the clients we already know.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2GCOHK8