SBI sees credit growth from power, road sectors

Bank will soon launch 'batua', a mobile wallet app for smartphone users, available in 13 languages

State Bank of India, which is seeing subdued growth in corporate credit, expects it to pick up in the second half with investment opportunities opening up in power and road sectors.

Speaking after inaugurating its Golden Jubilee Branch in the upmarket Banjara Hills here today, Rajnish Kumar, managing director and group executive, SBI, said, "The corporate credit growth had been subdued in the first half at 8.4 per cent but as investment picks up in sectors like renewable energy, road and power demand for credit would grow."

The country's largest lender saw improvement in asset quality in the July-September quarter. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 56,834 crore at end-September, from Rs 60,712 crore a year before. As a percentage of gross advances, gross NPAs were 4.15 per cent, from 4.89 per cent a year before.

However, Kumar said the biggest sector, which had been a cause for concern for the banking system as a whole was the iron and steel industry. "The safeguard duty, which the government has introduced, has provided some relief but the sector is still not out of the woods," he said, adding there was no one single formula to tackle this problem. He also expects the power sector to see some improvement on the back of the package announced by the central government.

Its retail banking was seeing good growth with housing loans at 16 per cent and car loans at 18-19 per cent. "We expect this momentum to continue."

The bank plans to set up 700 branches in the current financial year and these would be come up in urban, semi-urban and rural
areas. It has so far opened around 100 branches.

Mobile wallet for feature phones

SBI will soon come out 'batua', a mobile wallet app for feature phone users. Perhaps a first-of-its-kind in the mobile wallet space, it will have features similar to those in Buddy, and will be available in 13 languages. "We are hopeful of launching this in the next three weeks," he said. Mobile wallet Buddy, which was earlier rolled out, is for smartphone users.