Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 7: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has achieved a major milestone with its mortgage loan portfolio surpassing Rs 9 lakh crore in November. With strong momentum in the Retail, Agriculture and MSME (RAM) sectors, the bank now expects overall credit growth to touch 14% in the current financial year, Chairman C S Setty said in an interview with PTI.

The RAM segment, contributing nearly 67% of SBI’s total loan book, crossed Rs 25 lakh crore in September. Reflecting upbeat economic activity and rising credit demand, SBI revised its earlier growth guidance from 12% to 14% for FY26.

“We see robust credit growth particularly from the RAM segment. MSME is growing at about 17-18%, while agriculture and retail are around 14%,” Setty noted. He added that gold loans and express credit — the bank’s unsecured personal loan product — are witnessing strong traction.

Corporate lending, which remained sluggish in recent quarters, recorded a revival with 7.1% growth in Q2. Setty said the bank expects corporate credit to grow in the lower double digits, aiding the overall credit expansion target.

The recent 25-basis-point cut in the Reserve Bank of India’s repo rate to 5.25% is also expected to boost loan demand. The rate reduction came against the backdrop of India’s July–September quarter economic growth surging to a six-quarter high of 8.2%.

Despite the rate cut environment, SBI remains confident of maintaining its net interest margin (NIM) guidance of around 3%.

On the capital position, the chairman asserted that the bank is well-capitalised to support growth for the next five to six years without the need for fresh equity infusion. “Our long-term strategy is to maintain CRAR at 15% and CET-1 at 12%. With current profitability trends, additional capital raising may not be needed in the near term,” he said.