Pushing credit growth remains unfinished; SBI will do better in near future: Arundhati Bhattacharya

Arundhati Bhattacharya, who handed over the reins of State Bank of India on Friday, said reviving lending in the country was one of the major tasks left unfinished during her four years as Chairman of the nation's biggest lender.

Total bank loans in India grew just about 5 per cent in the year to March, the slowest pace in more than six decades. Latest central bank data showed an annual growth of 6.8 per cent for the two weeks to September 15, an uptick but still far slower than the mostly double-digit growth seen this decade. Moreover, state-owned banks in India, including market leader SBI, have been riddled with growing bad loans in recent years, which has slowed credit growth, and in turn, a long-awaited economic revival.

Even policymakers have agreed that credit growth is set to play a crucial role in reviving economic expansion in Asia's third-biggest economy where banks are the major source of funding. SBI has guided for a loan growth of between 6 per cent and 8 per cent for the current financial year to March.

"Even today credit growth is not where we wanted it to be.So that's an unfinished agenda. And I think the incoming chairman's already stated it will be his agenda to take that forward," Bhattacharya, the first woman to have led the more than 200-year-old bank, told reporters on her last day in office. SBI Managing Director Rajnish Kumar will be stepping in as the new SBI Chairman for a period of four years, starting tomorrow.

Another thing Bhattacharya said remains an unfinished agenda is a big digital upgradation project SBI is working on. The project which was to be over by July has been delayed as its scope was expanded, she said, with chances for it to be delivered in a month or so.

Before bidding adieu, Bhattacharya predicted better days ahead for the bank following a spike in bad debt in the June quarter due to a merger of its five subsidiaries with it. "My promises were that you will see better numbers going forward and we will stick to those promises," she said.

Bhattacharya was appointed as the first woman chairman of SBI in 2013. She assumed the role of the Chairman at a time when the economy was slowing down, asset quality was deteriorating, resolution of bad assets was moving nowhere and there was no hope of credit offtake because of an over-leveraged corporate sector.

Bhattacharya started her stint as the SBI chairperson by setting six strategic goals - digital, technology, improving delivery standards, cost reduction, NPA reduction and risk management. Bhattacharya's hands-on approach with digital initiatives, such as mobile apps for retail, SME and corporate customers, was well received. So were her efforts to promote digital-only branches - a one-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian banking industry - and artificial intelligence and robotics for credit analysis, risk management and better customer service. She is positioning the bank as 'the banker to digital India'.

The lasting impression Bhattacharya made was due to making some bold decisions in a public sector set-up. The merger of five associate banks was one such feat, which she saw through without major hiccups. The merger has taken SBI to the list of top 50 banks in the world with total assets worth Rs 40 lakh crore. The second and third largest banks in the country have assets of Rs 7-8 lakh crore. While critics say the bank is biting off more than it can chew, the success or failure of the merger will be known with certainty only after some years.