With the RBI bringing forward by a month the deadline to mobilise fresh FCNR(B) under its concessional swap facility, how much inflows do you expect? Which geographies are contributing to these inflows?

Originally, we had expected to mobilise $10 billion in FCNR(B) deposits by September 30. Despite the shorter timeline, I believe we should still be able to reach the $10 billion mark. The deposits are flowing from across geographies but mainly from Asia.

How will these FCNR(B) inflows change the composition of SBI’s balance sheet, particularly given that deposit growth has been lagging credit growth by a significant margin?

It will definitely change the composition, particularly in terms of wholesale deposits. However, we have a strong retail franchise, so our dependence on bulk deposits is relatively low. With these additional inflows, that dependence should become even lower.

Around $10 billion translates to roughly ₹94,000–95,000 crore, assuming an exchange rate of ₹94–95 to the dollar. That represents significant, sustainable, long-term liquidity for banks like ours.

You will soon complete two years as SBI Chairman. What has been your defining moment, your biggest leadership challenge, and what achievements are you most proud of?

I often say that every day at SBI is a defining moment. There is certainly no dull moment. When I took over, there were a few things I set out to achieve. One of the most important was augmenting capital.

We are committed to maintaining a CET1 ratio of around 12 per cent and a CRAR of around 15 per cent through the cycle. We are achieving this through a judicious combination of raising capital on our own balance sheet, including a successful QIP (of ₹25,000 crore in July 2025), and strategic divestments. For a long time, we had also been planning to list our AMC, and we successfully completed that listing. This further augmented our capital.

We also helped bring in a strategic investor into Yes Bank and monetised a part of our stake holding in the process. We also expect to be a significant participant in the proposed NSE listing process as well.

Beyond capital augmentation, which other initiatives have been important during your tenure?

In a large organisation like SBI, not everything can be a completely new initiative. Some initiatives are a continuation of the good work started by our predecessors.

Our team broadly categorised our priorities into employee empowerment, customer service, shareholder value creation, and meeting the expectations of regulators and the government.

On employee empowerment, we have undertaken intensive engagement through initiatives such as Next Leap. We also conducted a mass engagement programme called SuperSBI, bringing employees onto a common platform with a clear message that the customer is our priority.

On customer service, the introduction of YONO 2.0 (digital banking app) has been a defining moment. It is not simply a revamped application; it was rebuilt from scratch. Because of the strong brand recall that YONO created in our digital journey, we retained the name while rebuilding the platform.

Within six months, we added around 5 crore new registrations, and the number has now reached approximately 5.5 crore. Our promise to customers is to provide the best possible digital experience. Our broader philosophy is “Digital first, Customer first and Nation always.”

As a systemically important bank, how are you addressing operational risk and customer protection?

As a systemically important bank, we have to manage operational risk carefully and ensure that adequate customer protection is in place. As a proxy for the Indian economy and a bank that mobilises almost one-fourth of the country’s savings, SBI also has an important role in overall economic development, particularly in rural economies and in supporting MSMEs.

In MSMEs, we have significantly digitised our processes. As a result, our MSME delivery process has improved considerably, and we are increasingly becoming a preferred banking partner for MSMEs. We are currently seeing MSME growth of around 19–20 per cent.

You mentioned that MSME growth is around 19–20%. What other opportunities do you see as key growth drivers for SBI?

For the banking sector as a whole, the RAM segment—retail, agriculture and MSME—will continue to drive growth. SBI is no exception. At the same time, we remain the country’s largest corporate financier. Around 33 per cent of our loan book is corporate, and that proportion should broadly remain at this level.

We are also actively engaged in infrastructure financing and are looking at new age sectors such as data centres and semiconductors where opportunities are increasing. However, the primary growth rates will continue to be driven by the RAM segment.

We have performed well across these segments at the granular level, while continuing to focus on corporate lending. Corporate lending is also highly relationship oriented. We do much more than simply lend to corporates. Their employees, suppliers and buyers often bank with us as well. We have been building the entire ecosystem around corporate relationships.

SBI’s asset quality is at around a two-decade low. Are you confident that this can continue, or do you see the possibility of a credit-quality problem emerging somewhere in the system?

This needs to be addressed at two levels: the system level and the bank level. At the system level, historically, some of the major problems have originated in the corporate sector. However, corporates are much more disciplined today and have significantly strengthened their balance sheets. That gives us confidence.

Of course, economic cycles are inevitable, and financial services are inherently cyclical. But the overall financial sector is now much more resilient and robust and better equipped to handle downturns.

At SBI, we have fine-tuned our entire risk-management framework over the years. Following the previous asset-quality cycle, we reassessed our underwriting processes, digital and data-based risk assessment. These changes have helped us maintain asset quality.

At a loan-book size of around ₹50 lakh crore, having a credit cost below 30 basis points cannot simply be a coincidence. The favourable cycle is helping the entire industry, but our size and diversification also help us manage risk. We focus on risk right from the underwriting stage and have strengthened our monitoring mechanisms.

We have also maintained a balanced approach between risk and reward. We do not go to either extreme. Higher returns generally require taking higher risks, and we aim to manage that balance carefully.

SBI’s non-interest income has declined somewhat. Given that treasury income is vulnerable to changes in interest rates, how can you make non-interest income more stable?

Non-interest income essentially has two components. The first is treasury-related MTM (mark-to-market), which are driven by market conditions and are therefore mostly outside our direct control. The second is fee-based income.

Our focus has been on strengthening fee-based income, and we have performed well in this area over several quarters. You cannot build a sustainable profitability profile around treasury gains because they are inherently market dependent.

Our core non-interest income comes from areas such as loan-processing charges, foreign-exchange transactions, Letter of Credit/Bank Guarantee business and government business, and we have been growing across these income streams over the last several quarters.

Are you looking at any new sources of non-interest income?

The focus is primarily on strengthening the existing income streams. Cash management will be a major driver of our income. More broadly, we see significant potential in the entire transaction-banking ecosystem.

I believe we have the potential to generate around $2 billion of fee-based income from transaction banking alone. Transaction banking includes cash-management services, FASTag services, debit cards and other transaction-related products. We are also the largest issuer of national mobility cards. The objective is to build a comprehensive transaction-banking ecosystem that generates sustainable fee income.

A few months ago, you launched the Chakra Initiative, your Centre of Excellence for new-age sectors. What has been the outcome so far? Are you seeing new business coming out of it?

There are two aspects to Chakra. On the business side, we have consolidated the appraisal and assessment of new-age sectors under the Chakra team.

The Chakra team has been generating new business. Since its launch, the Chakra team has been able to generate new business to the tune of around ₹18,000 crore which are currently at various stages of processing. The other important aspect is capacity building, policy advocacy and developing credit-assessment frameworks for emerging sectors.

These are some of the areas the Chakra team is currently working on. It is a collaborative approach. Around 30 institutions have signed MoUs with us as part of the Chakra initiative, including banks, financial institutions and foreign banks. They are collaborating with us to develop these models.

SBI’s foreign operations have grown by around 21% in loan advances in rupee terms. Do you plan to increase the contribution of international operations to the balance sheet or expand geographically?

I strongly believe that for a bank like SBI, the biggest opportunity remains India. It is also true that our major strength is our international presence.

Given our scale and geographical footprint, we are truly an Indian multinational bank. We operate in 29 countries, with a presence across trade finance, external commercial borrowings, local lending and retail lending.

Our objective is to leverage our international presence primarily to support and strengthen our Indian business.

For example, with a scheme such as FCNR(B), our overseas presence made us a significant participant. We are present in those markets and can borrow from local banks that provide dollar liquidity at costs we are comfortable with. We can then reach customers and explain the scheme to them. That is the real power of our international presence. It is not simply about building a large overseas loan book.

Broadly, I believe international operations will remain at around 15 per cent of our overall credit book, which is a ratio we are comfortable with. Increasingly, we are positioning our international operations as an enabler for serving the Indian diaspora and corporates in India.