Under the scanner for loans to new telecos, the country's largest lender State Bank of India today said all necessary procedures were followed while giving loans and asserted that there was no risk to the money.
Responding to a query on CBI probing the role of certain public sector banks, including SBI, for giving loans to new telecom operators, SBI Chairman OP Bhatt said, "...We look at various procedures like tangible assets, collateral securities etc for not only telecom firms but in other sectors also.
"This we have been doing for so many years it is not a question of how much money we give, it is a question of whether that money is at risk or not," he added.
The CBI suspects that certain banks flouted norms to provide finance to companies, like Uninor and STel, which had received the 2G spectrum and licences in January 2008.
"So this we do as a banker ... And I don't think that anything which SBI has done in this case which justifies any apprehensions or doubts of any kind," Bhatt added.
The public sector banks were understood to have approved Rs 10,000 crore to Uninor (a joint venture between Unitech and Telenor of Norway) and Rs 1,538 crore to STel, on the basis of the licences issued to them by the DoT.
The SBI had provided a loan of Rs 8,050 crore to the Uninor during 2009-2010.
The other banks which gave loan to Uninor were Corporation Bank, Allahabad Bank, South Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Yes Bank.
STel got a loan of Rs 1,538-crore from IDBI and IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited, in 2009.
Last December, the SC had observed that some public sector banks had loaned huge amounts to the 2G licencees and had asked for a CBI probe.