SBI anticipates 16-18% loan growth, highlights promising outlook for home loans

The State Bank of India (SBI), a public sector lender, has set its sights on a robust loan growth of 16-18% for the fiscal year 2024. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Dinesh Khara, the Chairman of SBI highlighted positive trends in specific segments, stating, “Home loans, SME segments are seeing decent growth and the system should be growing in the range of about 16 to 18%. ”

He emphasised the significance of the housing sector, stating, “Home loans are seeing decent growth. This is a very promising sector and also leads to growth in all the core sectors of the economy."

Discussing the state of infrastructure, Khara noted that it remains stable compared to the previous year, and he anticipates growth in other areas.

He mentioned, “Rural, SME, and corporate will get to see reasonably decent growth.”

The conversation shifted towards recent regulatory changes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), specifically the stricter norms for personal loans and credit cards, involving higher capital requirements.

Khara acknowledged the concerns but offered a measured perspective, stating, “There is a lot of anxiety on this particular RBI guidance in terms of higher risk weights (RWAs), but this is actually applicable only to consumer loans in general.”

Khara further clarified that the impact might not be as significant as feared, saying, “So, if we filter out these exclusions from the consumer credit, we observed that the consumer credit has been growing at about 25% plus since May 2022.”

He pointed out that the share of loans affected by the RBI norms is relatively small, constituting around 9.8 to 10% as of September 2023.

Addressing concerns about capital requirements, Khara reassured, “Banking system overall is holding about excess capital to the tune of about ₹7 lakh crore."

Shares of SBI have gained more than 5% over the past month.