Arundhati Bhattacharya, the outgoing chairman of the State Bank of India (SBI), said the task of trying to revive loan growth remained her biggest unfinished task, even as she expressed optimism that the lender would regain any business lost in the course of the April 1 merger with associate banks by the end of this fiscal year.
“Even today credit growth is not where we wanted it to be…so that’s an unfinished agenda,” Ms. Bhattacharya said on Friday, in her last interaction with the media as the chief of the country’s largest lender. “And I think the incoming chairman’s already stated it will be his agenda to take that forward.”
Rajnish Kumar — who was one of SBI’s four managing directors under Ms. Bhattacharya — will succeed her as chairman on Saturday.
Credit growth, on a year-on-year basis, had slowed to 6.8% as on September 15, from 8.9% a year earlier, according to central bank data. In the financial year so far, outstanding loans have contracted 0.8%, data shows.
Mr. Kumar, in his maiden interaction as chairman designate, emphasised that ensuring the revival of loan growth and the resolution of stressed assets would be his top priorities.
Ms. Bhattacharya, the first woman to head the lender, had during her four-year term implemented and completed SBI’s merger with its five associate banks.
Merger impact
However, there were reports that the lender’s merged associates had lost some customers to competitors in the wake of the merger, which in turn had impacted SBI’s business growth.
Asked about the impact the merger had had on SBI’s business, Ms. Bhattacharya said the bank had already started regaining ground. “We are gaining ground quickly. We hope to regain the lost ground by the end of the financial year.” “This was one of those things where we had to take some short-term pain because the merging entities were a little unsure. They did not get access to the right system, they need new products. We are still training those employees. By December we will finish the training,” she said.
Ms. Bhattacharya said the impact on SBI’s business had been the most in areas where the associate banks had had their headquarters such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, and also in Maharashtra.
“In States where the merger has not happened our growth rate has not fallen.”
