State Bank of India

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Pawan Kumar, General Manager, Performance Planning and Review, Department of the Bank. On behalf of the State Bank of India, I extend a warm welcome to our analysts, investors, colleagues, and everyone gathered here following the declaration of Bank's quarter to financial year 27 results. I also welcome all the participants joining us through the live webcast. It's my privilege to extend a respectful welcome to our Chairman, Sri C.S. Setty, and our top management on the desk. Our Managing Director, Corporate Banking and Subsidiaries, Sri Ashwini Kumar Tiwari. Our Managing Director, International Banking, Global Markets and Technology, Sri Rana Ashutosh Kumarse. Our Managing Director, Retail, Banking and Operations, Sri Ram Mohan Rao Amara Our Managing Director, Risk Compliance and Saji, Sri Ravi Ranjanji Our Deputy Managing Director, Finance, Sri S. Paul Seated in the front rows are our Deputy Managing Directors heading various verticals and the Managing Director of our subsidiaries We also welcome the CGMs representing various verticals and business groups as well as other senior functionaries from the circles and various offices joining us through our live webcast. Our chairman will present an overview of the bank's quarter to financial year 27 performance and the strategic initiatives undertaken during the period. His address will be followed by a question and answer session. Before inviting Chairman Sir to address the gathering, I will read out the safe harbour statement. Certain statements in today's presentation may be forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual outcomes may differ materially from those included in these statements Due to a variety of factors. Thank you. May I now invite Chairman Sir to deliver his opening remarks. Chairman Sir, please.

Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to welcome you to SBI's analyst meet following the announcement of our second quarter results. Thank you for joining us in this analyst meet. The quarter went by reflects the continued resilience of the Indian economy and the underlying strength of SBI's franchise. While our financial results provide an immediate measure of performance, I would like to use this opportunity to focus also on the drivers that will determine the quality, efficiency and sustainability of our growth over the medium term. The global environment remains uncertain With geopolitical developments, shifts in trade policy, energy prices, and financial market volatility continuing to influence the outlook. India, however, remains on a strong growth trajectory. Domestic demand, investment, and sustained activity across manufacturing and services continue to support economic momentum. The RBI's October assessment places FI27 real GDP growth at 7.1%. For the banking sector, this provides a supportive environment for credit growth and the productive deployment of capital. At the same time, evolving liquidity conditions, funding costs, inflation and currency movements call for a continued financial discipline. We see significant opportunities ahead, but our approach remains firmly anchored in the quality of growth, prudent underwriting and strong risk management. At SBI, our objective is to build on the strength of our franchise while continuously improving the way we serve customers and deploy our resources. A key priority is to enhance productivity across our extensive branch network by progressively shifting routine banking transactions to digital and self-service channels. This allows our branches and employees to devote Greater attention to customer engagement, relationship building and business generation. I had mentioned some of the initiatives under the project SURL. Two major initiatives which have undertaken re-KYC program and Seva Sarthi. I would like to share a few thoughts on that. Our re-KYC program illustrates the progress we are making on simplification of journeys. Since its launch in June, more than 1.2 crore re-KYC updates have been completed digitally, reducing branch intervention by more than 50%, translating into 50,000 man-hours saved every day. These are meaningful productivity gains that can be redirected towards higher value customer engagement and business activities. We are seeing similar benefits from our Seva Sarathi initiative. More than 9,500 Seva Sarathis are now deployed across high footfall branches, helping customers access routine services and migrate progressively towards digital and self-service channels. This is reducing branch-based servicing of routine transactions while delivering meaningful savings in servicing costs. Importantly, these initiatives are being implemented at scale and their impact is being measured through tangible operating outcomes. This gives us a replicable framework for driving productivity and efficiency across other areas of the bank. Cyber resilience is another area where we are investing for the future. The recently inaugurated SBI CIRES, our Cyber Resilience Integrity and Security Centre of Excellence, will strengthen our capabilities while facilitating greater collaboration and knowledge sharing across the BFSI ecosystem. Collectively, these initiatives are aimed at building a more productive, technology-led and scalable operating model for SBI. Let me now turn to our business and financial performance. Net profit for the quarter was at 23,038 crores, while operating profit was 34,226 crores, registering a year-on-year change of 7.28%, while domestic net interest margin improved to 3.11% for the quarter. For the half year, return on assets remained healthy at 1.14% and return on equity stood at 18.68%, sustaining performance comfortably above our long-term guidance. Total business aggregated 115 trillion rupees with deposits amounting to 63 trillion and advances crossing 52 trillion. Credit growth remained well diversified with retail, agriculture, MSME and corporate advances all recording double-digit growth. Our overseas operations also recorded healthy growth in both deposits and advances. Our liability franchise remains a core strength and a key competitive advantage. Deposits grew by 12.27% year-on-year, with term deposits growing by 14.26%. Our strong CASA franchise provides a stable funding base and positions us well to support further balance sheet growth. Asset quality remains strong, supported by disciplined underwriting, closer credit monitoring and improved recovery mechanisms. At 1.39%, the gross NPA ratio is at its lowest level in more than two decades, while the provision coverage ratio remained robust at 74%. Our capital position provides additional strength. Capital adequacy stood at 16.09% improving by 147 base point year on year and is comfortably above regulatory requirements. This provides us with adequate capacity to support growth while preserving appropriate capital buffers. Technology is increasingly becoming integral to the way we serve our customers and run the bank. Yono continues to deepen our digital relationship with customers with total registration now exceeding 11 crores. We are also developing Yono Bharat, a device-neutral mobile banking platform designed to extend secure digital banking to financial inclusion customers, feature phone users and customers using devices across the variants. Alongside customer facing technology, we are deploying analytics, artificial intelligence and process automation to strengthen decision making, enhance productivity and improve service delivery. Our focus is not technology adoption for its own sake but its measurable impact on customer experience, operating efficiency, risk management and productivity. Over time, we expect these investments to contribute increasingly to the efficiency and scalability of the franchise. Our group businesses also continue to perform strongly. The listing of SBI Funds Management Limited during the quarter is an important milestone and underscores the value being created across the SBI group. Going forward, we see a strong runway for SBI to participate in India's continued economic expansion. Our focus will remain on delivering sustainable and profitable growth while steadily improving productivity, efficiency and the quality of our franchise. We remain confident in SBI's ability to build on its strengths and create sustainable value for all our stakeholders. My colleagues and I will now be happy to take your question. Thank you.

Thank you, Chamath sir. We will now take questions from the audience. For the benefit of all participants, please state your name and company before asking your questions. To accommodate as many participants as possible, we request you to limit yourself to two questions at a time. Kindly confine your questions to the bank's financial results and refrain from queries relating to specific accounts. Any additional questions may be raised at the end of the session, if time permits. Let us now proceed with the question and answer session, please.