Mumbai: India’s largest lender, the State Bank of India reported Thursday a 4.20 per cent decline in consolidated December quarter net at Rs 6,257.55 crore. This happened largely because of a higher base in the year-ago period where Staye Bank of India (SBI) had benefitted from a Rs 4,500 crore one-off income.
On a standalone basis, the city-headquartered lender’s net profit came in at Rs 5,196.22 crore as against Rs 5,583.36 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 4,574.16 crore in the preceding September quarter.
SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara told reporters that the year-ago period had seen the resolution of the Essar Steel loans, resulting in an over Rs 4,000 crore interest income and Rs 500 crore other income benefit.
For the reporting quarter, SBI’s core net interest income grew 3.75 per cent to Rs 27,779 crore on the back of a 6.73 per cent credit growth and a 0.21 per cent contraction in the net interest margin to 3.12 per cent.
The bank, which controls over a fifth of the overall system, witnessed a healthy growth of over 15 per cent in retail advances. These loans now constitute 61 per cent of the overall book. Khara said core personal loans are at 39 per cent of the book and the bank sees its share growing to 45 per cent in a year. He said the bank has preferences like salaried and new to credit customers while making its choices, and will continue to grow this book without compromising on risk.
SBI’s other income grew marginally for the quarter at Rs 9,246 crore as against Rs 9,106 crore in the year-ago period.
Khara said the overall slippages and restructuring number stands at Rs 41,216 crore as of the nine-months ended December and the bank is confident of meeting its guidance of containing this number at Rs 60,000 crore for FY21.
From a credit cost perspective, Khara said it set aside money as provisions for the proforma slippages at the same level as that for regular NPAs. SBI set aside Rs 2,071 crore for proforma slippages, Rs 814 crore for restructuring applications and added Rs 3,000 crore to take the general COVID-19 contingency to Rs 6,008 crore.
The reported gross NPA ratio was at 4.77 per cent as against 6.94 per cent last year, and would have still seen an improvement to 5.44 per cent if not for the apex court order.
Khara said the corporate accounts which have applied for restructuring stand at Rs 11,000 crore, spread across sectors.
