State Bank of India (SBI) has concluded the issuance of USD 600 million from bonds to fund the expansion of their overseas business.

“Here we are talking about the overseas and the international banking book that we have which is around USD 56-57 billion,” said Ashwani Bhatia, MD of SBI in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

He expects 8-9 percent credit growth in H2FY21. “For the second half of this fiscal which will end in March, we are still sticking to between 8 percent and 9 percent,” he said.

“Demand is coming back soon, retail has been a big surprise thanks to all the decisions that the central government has taken, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken and specifically for examples in places like Maharashtra, you had the taxes coming down significantly,” he said.

In terms of loan growth, he said, “We are sitting on excess Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) and we hope that it can be gainfully used for the economy in the next three months. Right now we are something above 8 and we hope that we can touch double-digits.”

On recovery, Bhatia mentioned, “Our stressed asset book is currently doing very well and as we have guided in the past, we do expect anything between Rs 7,000 crore and 10,000 crore recovery there.”

For entire conversation, watch the video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Jan 8, 2021 12:48 PM IST