State Bank of India will accelerate retail loans and expects most lenders to post stronger-than-anticipated earnings as the economy revives faster than expected, according to Chairman Dinesh Khara.
“The banks were expecting worse, so they strengthened risk management significantly,” Khara, who took charge as head of the country’s largest lender in October, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “That’s why we are expected to see much better results than at the beginning of the pandemic.”
SBI’s bad loan ratio fell to 5.28% at the end of September from 5.44% three months earlier, but the bank warned that it expects a further 200 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) of loans to sour over the next six months as the pandemic hurts borrowers. However, the state-run bank has provided for its potential bad loans in advance, which will prevent significant pressure from building, Khara said last month.
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