The Hindu Business Line : SBI expects profits to grow 30-35% in Q2

State Bank of India expects its profits to grow at 30-35 per cent in the current quarter, said its Chairman, Mr O.P. Bhatt. Pointing out that the bank’s credit has been growing by Rs 5,000 crore every month since July, the chief of the country’s largest bank said SBI has also been recording healthy growth in its retail portfolio. The bank’s retail loan growth is likely to be twice what it was in the year-ago quarter.

The bank has not incurred any mark-to-market losses in its treasury portfolio so far. However, there is still some time for the quarter to end and whether or not MTM losses are incurred will depend on how yields move by September-end, Mr Bhatt said.

Ms Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, said banks are unlikely to garner significant revenue from their treasury operations in the current quarter.

Mr Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank, said SBI’s treasury gains would be impacted but will not affect the bank’s base growth.

Corporate funding

The bankers were speaking on the sidelines of the FICCI-IBA banking seminar.

Addressing the seminar, Mr Bhatt said that Indian banks should be allowed to grow to a size and scale that can serve the financing requirements of big corporates.

Even SBI, despite being the country’s largest bank, cannot serve the requirements of the biggest corporates because of capital constraints.

Big corporates need to rely on multiple banks to meet their funding requirements, Mr Bhatt said.

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