Received Approval from Board to Raise Rs 5,000 Cr: Indian Bank MD & CEO

Public sector Indian Bank has received approval from the board to raise Rs 5,000 crore during the financial year, a top official has said.

The Chennai-headquartered bank reported a capital adequacy ratio of 17.80 per cent for the April-June 2025 quarter, the bank's Managing Director and CEO Binod Kumar said.

"Approval is there. We have to raise Rs 5,000 crore. Not QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement) or by any other instruments. But, I do not think it (fund raise) will be required (immediately). 17.8 per cent (of Capital Adequacy Ratio) is there.., " he told PTI in a brief interaction.

During the April-June 2025 quarter, the Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank rose to 17.80 per cent from 16.47 per cent recorded in the same quarter of last financial year.

Besides the fund raising plan, the bank is betting big on its UPI related payments proposal, as it is currently working on developing an IND-UPI application, similar to the services provided by PhonePe, GPay or PayTM.

Through such an initiative, the bank would be able to save about Rs 150 crore every year.

Elaborating, Kumar said the bank is developing its own UPI app named 'IND-UPI', a UPI-based payment solution similar to the current PhonePe, GPay or PayTM services.

"Right now, our customers are using other UPI apps and we (Indian Bank) have to pay them a fee. Monthly, it will be around Rs 12 crore. With the IND-UPI payment facility, customers will be able to make payments using our own application and through this we will be able to save Rs 12 crore per month (around Rs 150 crore per annum)", he said.

Kumar explained that the application is currently used by the senior officials of the bank as a 'Closed User Group' and it would be rolled out to customers soon after getting the approval from NPCI.

"By this initiative, we will be able to save a handsome amount. We will be able to pass on the benefits to our own customers like providing incentives whenever they use IND-UPI app to make UPI-transactions," he said.

To a query about hiring plans, he replied in the affirmative, stating they have received approval to recruit 3,000 employees during the current financial year across "all levels." "It will be 3,000 people across all levels this year. We are going to do specialised hiring like cyber security, risk specialists, there will be multiple specialised roles," he said.

Indian Bank reported a 24 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 2,973 crore in the April-June 2025 quarter. The bank earned a net profit of Rs 2,403 crore in the corresponding quarter of last financial year.

"The result is in line because earlier the growth has been a challenge for us. But this quarter we have grown in double digit. Earlier we grew in single digit," he said.

On the bank's target for this year under the recoveries segment, he said, "We have given guidance of Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,500 crore for the year. But in this April-June 2025 quarter itself, we have recovered Rs 2,059 crore. It is a good one".

The total income of the bank grew to Rs 18,721 crore during the April-June 2025 quarter from Rs 16,945 crore registered in the corresponding quarter of last financial year.