SBI's business may hit Rs 100 trillion in FY26, says Chairman CS Setty

Sets three-year horizon for achieving net profit of Rs 1 trn per annum

State Bank of India – the country’s largest lender – is poised to touch the Rs 100 trillion mark in total business in the next financial year, provided it maintains the current rate of 14-16 per cent loan growth and 10 per cent growth in deposits, said SBI Chairman CS Setty.

 

In an exclusive interview to Business Standard, Setty said he is confident the lender will be able to stick to the guidance of its loan growth even if there is a sharp slowdown in the banking industry.

 

Going forward, he noted that SBI has a three-year horizon to touch a net profit of Rs 1 trillion per annum.

 

“We have given the guidance of 14-16 per cent growth in advances, and on deposits, we expect lower double digit growth, say 10 per cent. With the current run rate, I think by March 2026, we will be at Rs 100 lakh crore [trillion] business. Probably, even before that,” Setty said.

 

The loan book of SBI was Rs 39.2 trillion at the end of September this year, while deposits stood at Rs 51.17 trillion. Deposits have already grown to around Rs 52 trillion at present. 

 

The banking sector credit growth has fallen to around 11 per cent in November from the high of 16 per cent during the start of the financial year.

 

“As far as SBI is concerned, we are still sticking to our guidance of 14 to 16 per cent. We have a good pipeline in the corporate space,” Setty said.

 

SBI has a pipeline of Rs 6 trillion of corporate loans, including sanctions and loans which are under process for sanctioning. Corporate loan growth on a year-on-year basis was 18.35 per cent till September 30, while the overall credit growth was 14.93 per cent.

 

On deposits, Setty said the bank is aiming for 10 per cent growth in the current financial year. The bank aims to maintain an incremental credit deposit (CD) ratio of 100 per cent.

 

“Our aim is to see in absolute terms the incremental credit deposit ratio of 100 per cent. We have enough liquidity in our system as the overall CD ratio is modest around 68 per cent,” he said.

 

In recent times, banks have been facing challenging times in mobilising resources as credit growth has outpaced deposits. In the last two fortnights, credit growth fell to match the growth of deposits.

 

Asserting that deposit mobilisation is a function of branches, Setty said SBI is opening 65,000 savings accounts every day.

 

“We have around 22,500 branches. We are opening an average of three savings accounts a day per branch, which means we open around 60,000 to 65,000 savings accounts every day. All the customers may not be opening the account for the first time, which means some of them have the potential to fund these savings accounts significantly,” he added.

 

The second-largest lender – HDFC Bank – has a total business of around Rs 50 trillion as of September 2024.