State Bank of India has set its sights on surpassing the operating profit milestone of ₹1-lakh crore in FY25 and has drawn up financial targets accordingly.
The country’s largest bank logged an operating profit of ₹65,050 crore in the nine months (April-December) of FY24, up 10.08 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y). In FY23, it had posted an operating profit of ₹83,713 crore.
“In FY23, we became the most profitable financial services company in Indian corporate history and clocked highest net profit ever exceeding ₹50,000 crore in a fiscal year... In the period ahead, the bank aspires to scale even greater heights,” says Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI.
Focus areas
In addition, the bank chief identified the following as key execution priorities: customer centricity and ease of banking for customers; focus on under-penetrated segments, new generation customers & emerging sectors; mobilisation of low-cost deposits across all geographies; adherence to robust underwriting standards & controlling slippages; boosting non-interest income; optimising costs, among others.
The bank expects domestic deposits and advances to grow by 14 per cent and 14.65 per cent, respectively, per internal projections for FY25. Overall, deposits and advances (including overseas operations) are seen growing 13.50 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.
As on December-end 2023, SBI’s domestic deposits grew 12.84 per cent y-o-yand stood at ₹45,67,927 crore. Total deposits, including foreign office deposits, increased by 13.02 per cent to ₹47,62,221 crore.
The bank’s domestic advances were up 14.47 per cent y-o-y to stand at ₹30,30,273 crore. Total whole bank advances, including in foreign offices, were up 14.38 per cent to ₹35,84,252 crore.
SBI is eyeing a net interest margin (NIM) of 3.35 per cent for the whole bank and 3.58 per cent for domestic operations. In the nine months of FY24, it recorded whole bank and domestic NIM of3.28 per cent and 3.41 per cent, respectively.
The Bank wants to contain gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) and net NPAs below 2 per cent (of gross advances) and 0.60 per cent (of net advances), respectively. As on December-end 2023, its GNPAs and NNPAs stood at 2.42 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively.
Khara emphasised that the asset quality cycle remained benign in last few quarters and the bank must continue to keep slippages under check and quality of portfolio as impeccable.