SBI expects Rs 4,000-cr capital infusion from government this financial year

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, on Monday said it expected Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion from the government to shore up its capital.

"We have requested the government for Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion (in the current financial year)," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said here on the sidelines of a function to launch an Air India-SBI co-branded credit card.

When asked about his expectations from the coming RBI policy review, he said the bank had recommended a cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR), as well as in repo rate.

On recovering the debt of grounded Kingfisher Airlines, the SBI chief said the lender was taking all possible action to recover the loans. However, he refused to divulge the details.

The government plans to infuse about Rs 14,000 crore of capital into banks in the current financial year (2013-14). Last financial year, the government had infused Rs 3,004 crore into SBI.

The lender had raised the money through a preferential allotment of shares to the government, through which the state holding in the bank increased to 62.3 per cent from 61.6 per cent. Infusion of Rs 4,000 crore would take the lender's total capital adequacy to 13 per cent, with core tier-I capital at 9.8 per cent.

SBI's total capital adequacy had stood at 11.85 per cent, with the core tier-I at 8.82 per cent, as on June 30 this year.