Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Q3 FY26 – ₹186 Cr PAT, GNPA 2.18%, Deposits ₹42,223 Cr: Cinderella Story or Midlife Crisis?

1. At a Glance – Blink and You’ll Miss the Punchline

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank is trading around ₹62, with a market cap of ~₹12,028 Cr, after delivering a Q3 FY26 PAT of ₹186 Cr, up 71% YoY. Three-month return? ~19%. One-year return? A spicy ~80%. Suddenly, everyone who ignored this stock at ₹30 is pretending they “tracked it closely.” Sure.

But before we start distributing laddoos, let’s note the contradictions: ROE at 12.4%, ROA 1.65%, NIM compressed to ~8.8%, and a P/B of ~1.93× for a bank that still calls itself “small” while managing ₹49,614 Cr of assets. GNPA has cooled to 2.18%, NNPA at 0.67%, and CAR a comfortable ~21.6%.

Deposits stand tall at ₹42,223 Cr, loans at ₹37,057 Cr, and CASA stubbornly at ~26%. This is not a fairy tale. This is a bank in therapy—recovering from microfinance trauma, learning retail manners, and flirting with the RBI for a Universal Banking License.

So the real question: is this a disciplined turnaround story… or just a well-dressed recovery rally? Ready to find out?

2. Introduction – From Microfinance PTSD to Banking Aspirations

Ujjivan began life in 2005 as an NBFC with a noble mission: serve the “economically active poor.” Translation: lend to people banks were too scared to touch. It did well, grew fast, and then—like every microfinance story—hit the inevitable potholes: asset quality cycles, regulatory shifts, and pandemic hangovers.

In 2017, it became a Small Finance Bank. In 2024, it completed the reverse merger with Ujjivan Financial Services, wiping out the promoter holding to 0% and turning into a fully professionally run institution. No promoter safety net. No emotional support. Just quarterly numbers and RBI glare.

Fast forward to FY26: GNPA has collapsed from 7.1% (FY22) to ~2.2%, capital ratios are healthy,