The West Asia-led supply chain disruption is likely to keep Bandhan Bank's technology-linked expenses inflated for the next couple of quarters prompting the bank management to reduce the return on assets (RoA) guidance by 40 basis points to 1.2-1.4% at the end of the current fiscal from 1.6-1.8% projected earlier."The journey towards our stated aspiration of delivering an RoA of 1.6%-1.8% by exit of Q4 FY2027 has become more challenging than it appeared earlier. I would like to reiterate that this is because of the external factors that we are confronting now," managing director Partha Pratim Sengupta said in a post-earning analyst call, reducing the guidance for the fiscal by 40 basis points.The lower projection prompted a rout in the bank's market capitalisation.The MD said that while the elevated funding costs and higher technology-related expenses have already started impacting the profitability, the impact of the other variables, especially the envisaged energy crisis that may be vulnerable to many of the sectors of the economy, is still evolving and remains difficult to assess at this stage."These developments have the potential to influence customer sentiment, operating costs, and overall profitability across the sector," he said.The technology cost that Bandhan Bank has been incurring is mainly on account of the loan origination system that the bank is installing to unveil new products and cross-sell products, people aware said.This higher-than anticipated tech cost led to a rise in operating expenses to asset ratio to 4.3% against the guidance of 4.2%."All these products are coming in place, and it requires investments, the initial investment. This tech cost has been there. For the bank to grow, this tech cost has to be there. Yes, the leveraging of this cost will definitely come in the future," Sengupta said.Chief financial officer Rajeev Mantri said that after two years of investments on technology, which is beyond FY2028, the bank would start to see improvement in operating efficiencies.