As sentiment improves, SBI raises credit growth target

MUMBAI: State Bank of India has raised its credit growth target for the year after broad-based momentum lifted profitability in the Dec quarter, chairman CS Setty said at a briefing.

"On the credit growth advice we had given 12 to 14% credit guidance earlier. We are revising that upwards to 13 to 15% based on the trend which we have seen in the current quarter so far," Setty said, adding that growth has been "secular" and that double-digit corporate credit growth should continue into Q4.

SBI posted a standalone net profit of Rs 21,028 crore for Q3FY26, up 24.5% year-on-year and its highest-ever quarterly profit. Setty attributed the jump to multiple levers. "Profitability in Q3 has come from many levers," he said, flagging fee income from cross-sell/upsell, govt business, letters of credit, processing charges, recoveries from written-off accounts and broad-based credit growth. Net interest income rose 9% year-on-year, driven by loan growth and lower funding costs.

A one-off also helped. "One item which is a dividend, special dividend we have received around Rs 2,200 crore from SBI Mutual Fund. Even when you net off this one-off, I think we have done fairly well," Setty said, adding that modest credit costs and tighter overhead control supported profits.

Growth stayed broad-based. "All the components of RAM - retail, agriculture and SME - have witnessed robust growth. Corporate credit has seen a rebound and has grown by 13.4%," Setty said, noting the higher guidance is "coming from all the segments." He highlighted new-economy pockets too. "We are active in data centre financing... wherever data centre capacities are being created, we are part of that journey," he said, adding that renewables remain core. "Our green portfolio has reached one lakh crore," he added.