India’s weaker economic growth will lead to more soured loans, even after an audit of lenders’ books pushed stressed assets in the South Asian nation to the highest among major economies, according to the head of the country’s largest bank. “There could be a few more accounts that could start showing stress mainly because the kind of growth in demand that we have been talking about still has not really come back,” State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Category: State Bank of India
SBI Head Lays Out Deposit Puzzle Faced by India’s Biggest Lender
Analysts scratching their heads over the impact on India’s banks of the country’s move to ban high-value notes have every right to be puzzled, as estimates offered by the chairman of State Bank of India indicate. The bank could retain anything from 15 percent to 40 percent of the deposit boost it received after the government withdrew about four-fifths of the banknotes in circulation in November, Arundhati Bhattacharya said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Television’s Erik Schatzker.
Largest India Bank Sees Loan Growth Jumping From 25-Year Low
State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, is predicting an acceleration in loan growth from a 25-year low after slashing borrowing costs to the lowest level in at least six years. The state-run lender cut lending rates based on the marginal costs of funds by 90 basis points across all tenures on Sunday.